


A Dash of You

by OwlHooots



Category: My Chemical Romance
Genre: Bloggers - Freeform, Friends With Benefits, M/M, Tumblr
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-02
Updated: 2014-09-02
Packaged: 2018-02-15 19:41:18
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 37,911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2241048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OwlHooots/pseuds/OwlHooots
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Frank and Gerard were one of the many popular gay bloggers on Tumblr who posted a lot of material about themselves hooking up with other men. And after nearly half a year of talking to each other over the Internet, they were starting this new year off right with Frank finally coming over to spend the weekend. This friendly hook up would quickly evolve into much more.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Dash of You

**Author's Note:**

  * For [frankenstein](https://archiveofourown.org/users/frankenstein/gifts).



> Before I say anything else, I'd like to give credit where it's due to [Sylvia](http://lesbianforgerard.tumblr.com) for this amazing AU she had in mind. As it usually goes, she shared it with me, we exchanged ideas until we basically had an outline, and she generously allowed me to run with it and fully write it. I've been working on it (and taking too many breaks) for almost year, so here it is finally! 
> 
> The AMAZING artwork you'll see throughout the fic is by the super awesome and talented [Zuzia](http://prostitutegerard.tumblr.com). Her drawings are absolutely amazing and the edits are fitting to the story. I was super super excited to see what art would come forth for this fic, and I was not disappointed at _all_.
> 
> And last, but not at all least, a HUGE thank you to [Bonnie](http://archiveofourown.org/users/happilyappled) for being the best beta I could ever ask for. I can never get over some of the suggestions she makes and how much they improve the story. 
> 
> And now I'll shut up, enjoy!

Gerard stood at his doorway, hair a mess, in nothing but his boxers, kissing his guest goodbye. It was a brief moment, not the most intimate touch of lips, but definitely a familiar and friendly place.

“Thanks for coming over last minute, Adam,” Gerard said, pulling back and leaning against the doorframe. “You’re always there when I’m stressed out.”

“No problem, man.” Adam shrugged, running a hand through his own sex hair. “Not like I can complain, right?”

“Hell no, you can’t,” Gerard said with a light laugh.

They bid their goodbyes and Gerard walked back into his bedroom, grabbing his smartphone and laptop from the desk by the window, and hopping onto the bed, taking a swift look at the sheets left cluttered by Adam and himself.

Adam had been a good friend of his for a long time, which didn’t rule out the possibility of him being an occasional fuck whenever Gerard needed it. They had met online, through Gerard’s blog on Tumblr, which was the way Gerard had met a majority of his friends and hook-ups.

While Gerard waited for his laptop to load, he used his phone to upload a few pictures he had taken with Adam. His followers on Tumblr had always enjoyed seeing Gerard with the various people he hooked up with, and he wasn’t at all embarrassed by the things he shared with them. The pictures Gerard had taken this time weren’t as revealing as some of his previous ones. They mainly consisted of Adam and Gerard kissing in various positions. Gerard uploaded the photos with the caption “amazing night as always <3” and then finally logged onto Tumblr through his laptop. Almost immediately, there were likes and reblogs dropping all over his activity page, which was no surprise to Gerard. He knew he looked good, he’d been struggling with it for a long time after all, and his followers were perfectly aware of how proud Gerard was of it. No wonder he had such a successful blog, really. Tumblr was always a matter of self-awareness.

Gerard also logged in to Skype, where he kept in touch with his closer online friends. He smiled when he saw that Frank was online. Frank Iero ran a blog similar to Gerard’s, which was how they had met, having had many mutual followers that led them to speak to each other. They’d been talking for months and had established a solid friendship.

 _“Check this out”_ , Frank typed after they’d greeted each other with a few messages. He sent Gerard a link to someone that had reblogged Gerard’s most recent photos with Adam; the person had added the caption: “cute, but come on, frank would look SO much better.” Gerard couldn’t help but smile at that. Since their style of blogging had such a huge fanbase, and most of the well-known blogs like Gerard’s and Frank’s had many of the same followers, they tended to ship various bloggers together. One of the most popular desired “couples” was Frank and Gerard, ever since their friendship had been apparent.

 _“im not biased or anything but i agree”_ , Frank typed.

Still smiling, Gerard wrote, _“well then why don’t you hurry the hell up and come visit me?!”_

Frank replied with, _“you down for that?”_

Gerard wrote back, _“i’ve been down since I first found your blog!_ ”

Gerard wasn’t trying to flatter Frank, or feed him sweet lines. It was just the truth. Frank was attractive, and they were both aware of it. From the moment Gerard started talking to him, he knew it was only a matter of time before they decided to finally meet and hook up, because that was simply what they did.

While continuing to send messages to Frank, Gerard went back to his browser and typed in the first letter of Frank’s URL – _youwannagetdown_ – and hitting enter because his browser had predicted it of course. Frank’s blog loaded and the title – _On Your Knees_ – showed up on the top of his blog and Gerard had to smirk at it every single time. It was genius, compared to Gerard’s, which he felt was a lame excuse of his imagination. His URL was _bemyheater_ and his blog title was _Be My Lover_ ; ripping off song lyrics – the Yeah Yeah Yeahs in this case – was his way out of coming up with something creative on his own. He scrolled through Frank’s recent photos of himself, laying down on a sofa and holding a camera up to take a picture. He was wearing a red plaid shirt, nothing else under, and his hazel eyes stood out strongly against the color. He had this blissed out expression on his face, as though he’d either been fucked or jerked off. Gerard guessed jerked off since there were no recent pictures of Frank with someone else.

Frank and Gerard were one of the many popular gay bloggers who posted a lot of material about themselves hooking up with other men. They had male and female followers alike that anticipated what they would post next, some of them simply wanting photos and others curious about their lives in general and them as people. It was strange because all they did was be themselves, live their lives, and keep track of it all in a public way, and it had almost gained them this sort of celebrity-like status.

Of course, they had absolutely no complaints about any of that. After all, this was Gerard's favorite way to find more and more hook-ups, mostly people who already knew most of his preferences and came over to his apartment to stay the night once in a while. People like Adam, and people like Frank. And after nearly half a year of talking to each other over the Internet, they were starting this new year off right with Frank finally coming over to spend the weekend. This was bound to provide them both with some really hot sex, while reassuring their solid friendship, so there really was no visible downside to Gerard’s chosen lifestyle.

**

When Friday came, Gerard was excited to finally get to see Frank in person, not just as a fuck buddy, but as a friend. Regardless of what they knew would happen once they met, they got along even outside all of their flirtatious messages. Gerard’s doorbell rang not long after he’d gotten home from work. He gave his apartment one last glance over, hoping everything looked presentable, and then opened the door.

Frank stood a few inches shorter than Gerard, but smiled with a large amount of confidence and surety. Their arms reaching out to each other in a hug seemed natural and instinctive.

“Holy shit, it’s so awesome to finally see you!” Gerard exclaimed excitedly, holding Frank’s small frame in his arms, inclining his head to bury his face into Frank’s soft hair.

“Same here,” Frank replied, sounding just as happy, and returning Gerard’s embrace.

“I totally imagined you’d be shorter.” Gerard laughed, pulling out of the embrace and holding Frank at an arm’s length.

“Oh fuck off.” Frank rolled his eyes, shrugging Gerard’s hands away. Gerard moved out of the way, so that Frank could walk inside, and then shut the door behind himself.

“It’s not much,” Gerard said about his apartment, eyes on Frank’s back. Every person he met online seemed to be ten times hotter in person, and Frank was no exception. He was wearing yet another plaid shirt – he wore _a lot_ of plaid – and some amazingly tight jeans that Gerard couldn’t wait to get into. “I mean, this is basically it. Living room here, kitchen there.”

Frank nodded along to Gerard’s words. Gerard’s apartment was small, but cozy. The living room and dining room were combined together, cut off by a bar-like counter that gave a view into the kitchen.

“I like it,” Frank said with a nod, turning his head to give Gerard a smile.

“You can leave your stuff in my room,” Gerard said, leading the way to his bedroom which was just a few steps away from the front door. He flicked the light on, illuminating his dark gray colored walls. “I actually just got back from work, so if you don’t mind, I’m gonna hop into the shower really quick.”

Frank dropped his backpack next to the bed and then shoved his hands into his jeans pockets like he was hiding something.

“Shower?” Frank asked with a smirk. “What’s the point? You’re gonna get dirty anyways.”

Gerard turned to face Frank, biting on his tongue because he was so tempted to just go for it and fuck Frank right away, but he felt too disgusting after a long day at work.

“I have to get clean before I get dirty.” Gerard shrugged. “Keep yourself busy till I’m done.”

Without another word, he disappeared into the bathroom, and Frank definitely noticed that though the door clicked shut, it didn’t lock. Gerard was teasing him a bit, and Frank would tease right back and refrain from going in until after Gerard finished showering.

There wasn’t much for Frank to do while he listened to the water running and splattering in the bathroom. He moved his backpack near Gerard’s closet, keeping it out of their way, and took his shirt off. He leaned against the wall and took his phone out, scrolling for a moment through Tumblr. None of his or Gerard’s followers knew that Frank and Gerard were finally meeting; they had decided to keep it a surprise. Frank had been debating how he should reveal it to them. His thoughts were cut short when he heard the water finally turn off.

Phone still in hand, he heaved himself off the wall and went into the bathroom. The walls were bright red, but Frank’s eyes focused solely on a naked Gerard holding the shower curtain out of his way as he stepped out of the bathtub. His eyes caught Frank’s, but Frank was too busy taking in Gerard’s wet body, gaze wandering down his chest and down to his dick, and that was when he could not contain the smirk on his face.

Gerard wrapped the towel around his waist, forcing Frank to look up at his face. Gerard ran his fingers through his long black hair and his smirk matched Frank’s.

“What?” Gerard asked playfully. “You like what you see?”

Frank dismissed Gerard’s tease with a shrug and for a second, they just stared at each other, both heated and so ready, but not wanting to end this teasing game just yet.

“You know, your bed looks pretty comfy,” Frank said, using the lamest pick up line he could think of. “I’m kinda curious to test it out. Are you gonna show me?”

Gerard stepped away from the bathtub so that he was just inches away from Frank. “Now?” he asked. “But I just showered.”

For a moment, his innocence was almost believable, eyes wide and lips in a subtle pout. But then he was smirking, moving around Frank, bodies pressing together since the bathroom was so small, and going back into his bedroom. Frank stared at the mirror that was right in front of the door and could see Gerard’s pale back behind him. Frank smiled at his own reflection and held his phone up. He angled his camera so that half of his own body was visible in the mirror, but the rest was Gerard’s bare back, barely visible in the distance. Gerard decided to unwind the towel from his waist right when Frank hit the capture button, leaving his ass just a blur in the photo.

It was perfect. Frank turned around, but was focused on his phone, uploading the photo to Tumblr. Frank posted it with the caption, “Hell-o, Gerard. This is going to be nice.” He was elated with the idea of their followers finding out that way and going crazy with excitement.

“You’re already at it, huh?” Gerard asked, turning around to find Frank typing away at his phone.

Frank glanced up at Gerard and then looked back down at his phone so that he could finish uploading it. “You know how excited they’re gonna be about this,” Frank said. “Gotta keep them happy.”

“Well, are you just gonna make posts all night, or are you gonna give them something to talk about?”

Frank finally looked away from his phone, casually walking over, right past a naked Gerard, to leave his phone on a nightstand. He turned back to face Gerard.

“I thought you were complaining about how you’d just showered,” Frank said, cocking his head to the side. He pretended not to be distracted by Gerard standing just a couple strides away from him, in the nude, stray drops of water clinging to his skin.

“I didn’t know you were the type to give up that easily,” Gerard rebutted. Frank stood there and allowed Gerard to take a few steps to finally close the gap between them.

Suddenly, all teasing stopped. Once they were within reach, fingers itching to meet with skin, all coaxing was pushed aside. Gerard’s hands had a firm hold on Frank’s hips, and Frank’s hands were tangled into Gerard’s damp hair. Their kisses were hard and bruising right from the start, nipping at the other’s lips whenever they got the chance. Their bodies were pressed against each other, Gerard’s hardening cock sliding against the rough texture of Frank’s denim.

Guiding them about two steps to the right, Gerard pushed Frank against the wall. He moved his mouth away from Frank’s, choosing to explore Frank’s neck instead, sucking and biting, but not long or hard enough to leave any marks, because his mouth couldn’t stay in one place.

“Dominant, are we?” Frank managed to say, voice tight, holding back a moan so that he could speak.

“You don’t know the half of it,” Gerard replied, voice rough, and then he went back to exploring Frank’s skin, biting along Frank’s jaw.

“Well, I’m not very submissive, you know,” Frank breathed, barely able to get the sentence out.

Gerard hardly acknowledged it, and Frank did not blame him; it had not sounded very convincing. Frank tried to maintain some sort of dominance, trying to take control, but every time Gerard decided to move his mouth somewhere new, Frank melted in his arms. He allowed Gerard to guide him away from the wall and to the bed. Before he got comfortable, he quickly rid himself of his jeans and Gerard was more than happy when he noticed the lack of underwear.

Gerard had Frank on his back and was, once again, exploring Frank’s body with his mouth. It was driving Frank insane and he could do nothing but moan encouragingly, and keep a firm grip on Gerard’s hair.

It had been a hard task for Gerard to control himself earlier, having Frank shirtless in front of him, the bits of ink on his skin calling Gerard’s eyes and mouth to go exploring. There was the small flame on the left side of his chest with the word “Hope” right under it, which Gerard was now sucking into his mouth, causing Frank to shiver beneath him. Frank moaned, head thrown back, and eyes shut tight.

Meanwhile, Gerard’s fingers were digging into Frank’s hips, into the two birds he had tattooed there, sliding his blunt nails over them, and then massaging over the skin with his palms. When Gerard’s mouth moved further down and his tongue glided playfully over Frank’s nipple, Frank couldn’t take it. Gerard was having all the fun here.

Frank pulled on Gerard’s hair, forcing him back up to kiss that amazing mouth of his. Gerard obliged, hips rolling down onto Frank, eliciting moans from the both of them. Frank flipped them over then and took no time at all to drag his body down and take Gerard’s cock into his mouth. He swallowed it down all too easily, Gerard’s whole body was shaking with it. He watched Frank as he held his head in place, swallowing around Gerard’s dick, and then pulled up, lips so enticing as they slid up to Gerard’s tip. Gerard repeated Frank’s actions from earlier, pulling on Frank’s hair to get him up to his mouth.

They were quick now, too wound up to drag things on any slower than they had been. Gerard reached over to his nightstand, and when he turned his attention to Frank, he was already in position, on his knees facing the headboard, and bracing himself on it with his hands.

Gerard licked his lips and rolled a condom onto himself in record speed, watching as Frank was stroking himself slowly, not to push himself closer to the edge, but just to maintain the night’s momentum.

Gerard slicked himself up and then settled behind Frank, placing a firm hand on Frank’s hip, and then guiding himself in. The two of them were far past needing preparation, so there was hardly any struggle as Gerard slid into Frank. Frank let out a loud sigh when Gerard was all the way in and hung his head low, shoulder blades shifting with the movement. Gerard moved forward to mouth at the crook of Frank’s neck and Frank hissed as he felt Gerard shift inside him.

“You good?” Gerard asked, voice muffled by Frank’s skin.

“Yeah,” Frank panted out, shuffling on his knees. “Don’t… don’t stop moving.”

Gerard nodded and lifted himself up and away from Frank so that he could move properly. This earned him another hiss from Frank, followed by a groan. Gerard kept his thrusts slow, moaning every time Frank moved with him, rocking steadily in a gradual rhythm.

Frank’s silent pants were turning into moans and Gerard knew he could move faster then. He held Frank’s hips still, and gave a hard thrust up into Frank, which had him arching, grinding back for more.

Frank was making delicious sounds that were turning Gerard on even more than he thought possible. Every once in a while, Frank let out an almost inaudible groan of, “Fuck.”

Gerard leaned forward, sucking hard on the tattoo beneath Frank’s ear, hoping to hear more of those blissful sounds. Frank definitely reacted.

“Fuck, Gerard,” he moaned, just short of a whine, and Gerard hummed back, voice vibrating against Frank’s wet skin.

“Turn over,” Gerard grunted into Frank’s ear. “I wanna see you.”

Frank nodded and Gerard eased out of him. Frank got onto his back, and Gerard leaned down while he slid back in, both of them moaning against each other’s mouths as they immediately launched into a much faster rhythm.

Gerard was right to have changed positions, because Frank’s face while he neared his orgasm was not something he would have wanted to miss. He was biting hard into his bottom lip, breathing loudly through his nose, and scrunching his eyes shut tight. Occasionally, his mouth would drop open as a moan or curse fell out of it.

Gerard sat up and pulled Frank’s hips towards him, Frank’s back dragging the sheets of the bed as Gerard settled him so that he was basically in his lap. Holding Frank’s hips tight, he grinded into him, head back and moaning at the ceiling. He was so close; he could feel it prickling beneath his skin, all over him, ripping the breath right out of him.

“Come on,” Frank’s voice urged him. “Fuck, fuck… come on. You’re there. You’re fucking there. Come the fuck on, Gerard.”

Frank’s voice helped bring it forth and Gerard was coming, surging forward and half lidded eyes meeting Frank’s as he shook with it. It felt like it lasted forever, hips shuddering against Frank, moaning as Frank latched his mouth onto Gerard’s neck, sucking on it until Gerard’s body felt lax against his own. Frank pulled away and licked his lips, stroking the slightly sore spot on Gerard’s neck with his thumb.

Once Gerard’s body was still enough to actually do something, he took a hold of Frank’s cock, clumsily moving Frank’s hand out of his way, and moved his hand quickly, knowing that Frank was almost there. He was right and with just a few quick strokes, Frank was arching against him, pressing their chests together, and pulling roughly on Gerard’s hair. He was loud as he came, so much louder than Gerard, and Gerard loved it. He kept his mouth away from Frank’s, no matter how wet and tempting it looked, just so he could hear the moans spill out of it.

Gerard pulled out of Frank when he felt that he was relaxed and went to discard the condom in the bathroom, coming back with a wet towel to clean them both off. Frank just lay on the bed, as stretched out as possible, eyes shut, and hummed softly as Gerard cleaned his skin.

“Making me do all the work, you lazy ass,” Gerard said, biting Frank’s stomach after he wiped it.

“Well, you’ve done such an amazing job.” Frank shrugged, voice sounding sluggish and tired; that satisfied Gerard. “I won’t be the one to stop you now.”

Gerard rolled his eyes and tossed the towel onto the nightstand, choosing to take care of that later because he was getting tired just looking at Frank. He crawled into bed and Frank opened his eyes, scooting over to make room.

“I’m a cuddler,” Gerard warned, settling in close to Frank.

“Everyone who follows you knows it.” Frank laughed. “You talk more about cuddling than sex.”

Gerard smiled and simply waited with an outstretched arm for Frank to snuggle into his side, which he did without fighting. Frank was a cuddler, too, even if he didn’t boast about it.

“So, you’re not submissive, hm?” Gerard teased, fingers softly skidding down Frank’s back.

“Shut up.” Frank groaned, nuzzling his forehead into Gerard’s chest. “I just let you have your way this time, so I can make you happy.”

“Oh, really?” Gerard chuckled. “Are you all talk or are you actually gonna back that up?”

“I’d prove it to you now actually,” Frank said, “but you should rest, ‘cause once I start with you, you’ll need all the energy you can get.”

“Mm, if you say so.”

Frank seemed as though he was drifting off, but then he was suddenly tense against Gerard and rolled onto his side, giving Gerard his back. Gerard scooted closer to him and started nibbling on his shoulder, breathing hot air onto it. Frank made this needy noise from his throat that made Gerard stop biting and simply smirk against his skin.

“What are you doing?” Gerard asked with a muffled voice.

“Look up here,” Frank said.

Gerard lifted his head and saw that Frank had reached for his phone and was now holding it up to take a picture of the two of them together. Gerard allowed his head to fall against Frank’s, temples resting against each other, and he used an arm to pull Frank close, causing a small smile to appear on both their faces. Frank snapped the picture, and then Gerard moved his mouth back down to Frank’s shoulder, resuming his biting.

“I can’t focus to upload this with you doing _that_ ,” Frank complained, shrugging his shoulder. Gerard laughed breathily and pulled his mouth away, choosing instead to peer over Frank’s shoulder as he posted the photo to Tumblr through his phone.

Frank wrote the caption, “He was better than good, but what else did I expect?” They were both too tired to browse Tumblr or watch how their followers had reacted, so Frank put his phone back on the nightstand and settled comfortably into bed, with Gerard pressed snuggly into his back.

They drifted off, minds and bodies exhausted, content with this first encounter, having expected nothing less than amazing from each other, and getting nothing but.

When morning arrived, Frank was up first. Gerard had rolled away from him and was sprawled out near the edge of the bed. Frank yawned, scratching at his messy hair, and then got out of bed to put on his boxers. He went to the bathroom to take care of his morning piss, and when he was back in the bedroom, Gerard was just barely opening his eyes.

“Morning,” Frank greeted, climbing into bed and straddling Gerard over the sheets.

Gerard grumbled some sort of response that Frank couldn’t decipher, but they both had small smiles on their faces.

“Oh, man, look at your neck,” Frank mused proudly, running his hand over the marks he’d left on Gerard. There were only a couple, but they were big, dark, and obvious against his pale skin.

Gerard hummed and ran his hands idly over Frank’s thighs. Frank leaned away from Gerard so that he could reach the nightstand on the other side of bed and retrieve his phone. Gerard bit his bottom lip and sat still as Frank snapped a few pictures. Frank made sure that one of his tattooed hands was visible in every photo, gripping the crook of Gerard’s neck to indicate that those were marks made by him. Once he was done, he leaned down and rested his chin against Gerard’s shoulder, peering up at him with large hazel orbs, luckily not obscured by his soft hair that was grown out but not long enough to cover his eyes.

“Coffee?” Gerard suggested, because Frank’s presence had woken him up more so than usual, but not nearly as much as coffee would.

Frank nodded and they finally got out of bed, Gerard getting in a pair of sweats and leading Frank to the small kitchen. Frank took a seat on one of the stools that overlooked the bar counter, watching Gerard through the opening as he prepared them each a cup of coffee.

They sat together, sipping at their coffee, and browsing Tumblr. Both of their inboxes were filled with asks about their meeting and the photo Frank uploaded last night had already gained thousands of notes. They were sitting close to each other now, sharing and laughing at some of the questions they received, but chose not to answer any of them yet. Frank’s visit would end soon and they did not want it to go to waste.

“So there’s an acoustic show happening at a bar near here,” Gerard said while he washed their mugs in the sink. Frank looked ten times more awake when he heard that. “It’s a local band, but I’ve heard good stuff about them, so I thought we could go check it out.”

“Hell yeah, that sounds awesome,” Frank agreed enthusiastically.

“I figured you’d like it,” Gerard pointed out with a proud smile. “Go start getting ready. It starts like a little after noon.”

Frank needed no more instruction than that. He hopped out of the stool and went into the room to get ready. Gerard got dressed in his room while Frank took his own things to the bathroom. It only took Gerard a few minutes to find an outfit, adjust his hair a bit, and he was done. When he went into the bathroom, Frank was still in his boxers.

“What have you been doing this whole time?” Gerard cocked an eyebrow, leaning against the doorframe and watching Frank in the mirror.

“Hair, duh,” Frank said simply as though it was obvious. Gerard stood there and watched Frank retrieve container after container of various hair products, before slathering them onto his hands, and intricately running them through his hair. He was focused on his reflection and Gerard was so amused. It was taking so long that Gerard walked over and sat on the edge of the bathtub to watch. Frank paid him no mind as he took a closer look at Frank’s hair, which was a soft shade of natural brown, just long enough to leave loose tendrils around his ears; Frank paid close attention to the curls, running his fingers through them so that they framed his face perfectly. Sometimes he styled his hair up, leaving it to look mostly straight, but that day he decided to show off his waves.

It felt like an eternity later that Frank stopped rubbing stuff into his hair, and stepped back, turning his head at different angles to make sure it looked good. He washed his hands clean and then sprayed a huge amount of hairspray, keeping his arm as far away from his head as possible, so that all his hair got of the substance was a light mist.

“Perfect,” Frank said with a nod.

“Wow.” Gerard finally let out a laugh. “You’re such a diva, holy shit!”

Frank turned to look at Gerard like he was surprised to find him there.

“Shut up.” He scoffed. “It’s not easy making my hair look this good.”

“How does it still feel so soft, though, with all that shit in it?” Gerard asked, gesturing towards the products that lined every inch of his counter.

“That’s the genius part.” Frank smirked confidently. He took an outfit out of his backpack and then stuffed all his products back in there.

It didn’t take him as long to get dressed, though he did stand there trying to fold up the sleeves of his shirt so perfectly and evenly to make sure they looked identical. Gerard groaned and stood up, forcing the sleeves messily up Frank’s arm and saying they looked fine. Frank frowned at him a little, but then obliged, and finally a couple minutes later, they were ready to go.

They took a cab to the bar, neither of them wanting to deal with noon time traffic. Conversations between them felt no different than the nights they had spent messaging on Skype, or publicly flirting on Tumblr. They talked about music, Gerard telling Frank that he had to come back again to see this band perform a full show because their sound was a lot rawer outside of acoustic performances. Frank agreed that he would definitely do that, and they both exchanged knowing smirks about having promised another visit; one night together was not nearly enough.

When they arrived, the performance had already started and most people were crowded up near the stage, but Gerard took them to an open table near the bar. He had noticed how Frank’s hands had started to wander before they had even left the cab, and now Frank even scooted his chair closer to Gerard’s before they sat down.

“I wish I was staying another night,” Frank whispered right into Gerard’s ear after only a couple of songs. His hand was heavy and hot on Gerard’s thigh, fingers stroking along the inner seams of Gerard’s jeans.

“I wish you were, too,” Gerard agreed.

“Next time I come, we should just stay home,” Frank breathed against Gerard’s neck, nosing along Gerard’s jaw. “Because it’s really, really hard to keep my hands off of you.”

Gerard swallowed and Frank went ahead and ran his tongue along Gerard’s Adam’s apple, making Gerard let out a shaky sigh. He finally turned his head and captured Frank’s mouth with his own, but only briefly.

“Everyone’s watching the performance,” Gerard said when he pulled away. “Restrooms are probably empty.”

They got up from their seats and scrambled over to the restrooms. Fortunately for them, they were empty, and after clumsily shuffling into a stall, they gave each other equally as clumsy handjobs.

“You got it on my shirt!” Gerard complained while he scrubbed some water onto the bottom edge of his shirt where some of Frank’s come had landed.

“Not my fault you didn’t move.” Frank shrugged, looking too smug to feel any amount of guilt. His hair was still mostly intact, just a bit ruffled out on the sides. Gerard’s hair, on the other hand, was standing up in every direction. Frank stood behind Gerard and tried to straighten it out. Frank had to hold onto Gerard’s shoulder, and stand on the tips of his toes to reach the top of Gerard’s head. Gerard gave him a grateful smile in the mirror.

They looked presentable enough and went back out to find that the acoustic performance was already finished and the band was greeting people near the stage.

“We’re the worst audience ever,” Frank hissed, pinching Gerard’s side.

Gerard laughed. “Come on, we gotta go get your stuff so you don’t miss your train.”

They managed to find a cab, go back to Gerard’s place to retrieve Frank’s things, and then Gerard drove them to the train station. They arrived just about ten minutes ahead of time.

“So, next time you come,” Gerard began to say to Frank, but was interrupted by Frank throwing an arm around him and pulling his face down next to his.

“Smile,” he said, holding his camera out. Gerard did just that, and when they looked at the photo, they both had matching exaggerated grins that made their eyes shrink.

“So, next time,” Frank continued what Gerard was saying, “I should stay longer.”

“For the whole weekend,” Gerard agreed. “I’m off of work on weekends.”

They hung around waiting for Frank’s train, taking a few more stupid pictures together, Frank purposely wrapping himself around Gerard and kissing him hard if anyone looked at them with any disdain.

“Send me all the pictures you took on your phone,” Gerard said as Frank was about to board his train.

“Sure thing,” Frank said with a nod. “I’m surprised you haven’t taken any.”

“What can I say? When I get into it, I totally forget.” Gerard shrugged.

Frank raised his eyebrows and could not contain the cocky smile on his face even if he had tried. “You take pictures with other guys,” he said. “Am I just that good? Did I make you forget?”

“Don’t flatter yourself.” Gerard rolled his eyes. He pulled Frank in for one last kiss goodbye, forced to keep it short, and then Frank was straightening his backpack while he walked to the open doors of the train. Gerard watched him turn back before the doors shut to give him another wave, and he waved back.

On his drive home, Gerard realized he had hardly been on his blog at all throughout Frank’s stay, and though he would not admit it to Frank to keep from inflating his ego, Gerard could admit to himself that Frank was probably the best hook-up he had had. Frank had gained fame on Tumblr faster than anyone he knew, and now he understood why. Frank was irresistible in so many ways.

When he got home, Gerard already had a text from Frank that said, _“check tumblr, the fangirls are going crazy.”_

Frank was right. Gerard had hundreds of messages in his inbox, and when he checked Frank’s blog, the few pictures he’d posted already had thousands of notes each. He even checked what some of the people were saying and could not help but laugh at posts that said things like “OUR OTP IS ALIVE” and various similar captions written in all-caps.

Gerard tried to answer messages that had accumulated over the weekend. Many of them were repetitive, asking what happened between himself and Frank, if they fucked, who had bottomed, what they did after, if they were planning to see each other again, so he answered the first of each type of question and deleted the repetitions so that he could get through as many as possible. The top versus bottom queries, especially, were quite popular since their mutual followers were in constant debates about who would dominate who. Since Frank and Gerard were open to experimenting and taking part in both, there was the constant question of what roles they would fall into when they got together. People revered in the knowledge that Gerard topped first, but Frank kept others happy by telling them he would get his chance.

When he looked through things he was tagged in, he was blown away to find that people had already made amazing edits of the photos Frank posted. Gerard was good with Photoshop and enjoyed editing photos, but if his photos were going to be as high quality as some of the ones he saw, it would take him a lot longer. He was always impressed and so he reblogged some that had caught his attention the most.

While he browsed Tumblr, catching up on what he had missed while Frank was around, he was texting Frank. They texted while Frank was on the train, on his cab drive home, while they each had a late dinner, and then until they both ended up asleep. Frank’s visit had passed by so quickly, Gerard almost felt as though it did not happen. The photos on Tumblr, as well as the marks that littered Gerard’s body, were the strong reminders that it definitely had happened and was going to happen again.

Gerard’s days went by normally as they always did. He had another day off, and then he was back to work as a supervisor at Toys ‘R’ Us. It was not the most glamorous job, but it paid decently enough and Gerard couldn’t complain about the somewhat fun atmosphere. They were a bit shorthanded on staff that week, though, so Gerard found himself taking more shifts than he usually did, which kept him busy. He did nothing other than sleep, work, and browse Tumblr when he wasn’t doing the first two.

He kept in touch with Frank, even more frequently than usual after their last visit. They had come to an agreement that Frank would visit again the following weekend and leave late Sunday so that they would have two nights together. Frank, however, having a lot more free time than Gerard, kept himself active before his next visit. On a Wednesday night, Frank posted photos of him with another guy. He looked familiar to Gerard and he was sure Frank had probably hooked up with him before. Gerard had to laugh at the reactions of their followers. They heartily disapproved of Frank hooking up with someone else because he needed to be with Gerard, and apparently no one else.

Gerard almost choked on the coffee he was drinking when he saw that someone had edited a photo of Frank with the unnamed man he was with that night, so that his face, which was only half visible as Frank sucked on his shoulder, was replaced by Gerard’s face in a horribly done effort in Photoshop. Gerard took a screen shot of the photo and sent it to Frank in a text that said: _“you’re ruining their ship, Frankie :(”_

It only took Frank a couple minutes to reply with, _“hahaha oh my god, that is amazing! It’s ok tho we’ll just have to make it up to them this weekend ;)”_

Gerard agreed with that sentiment and then went on to complain that he had no idea what they should do for the duration of Frank’s visit and that he was not aware of any good gigs happening that weekend. Frank assured him that staying home was great and he would much rather have a relaxed day with Gerard, doing nothing other than blogging, more than anything. Gerard was convinced and he also felt the same way, so that was their plan.

The weekend finally came, and on Frank’s cab drive over to Gerard’s house, he was sending Gerard flirtatious messages the entire time.

_“I can’t wait to see you.”_

_“I can’t wait to touch you and kiss you.”_

_“I want your mouth all over me like before.”_

_“Sucking and biting all over me.”_

_“Your mouth drives me crazy.”_

_“I get so hard whenever I think about last time.”_

And Gerard was getting hard just waiting for Frank to arrive. Gerard met him at the door, since Frank was narrating every bit of his trip out of the taxi, up the elevator, down the hall… The texts only stopped once Gerard finally pulled Frank in and pressed him up against the door, devouring him the way Frank wanted him to. Clothes were shed at various points on their way to the bedroom. The only reason they were even containing themselves long enough to get into the bedroom was because Gerard had plans.

Frank did not notice what Gerard was plotting until he was fully naked and actually paying attention to the bed behind him. There were two pairs of handcuffs already attached to the headboard of the bed. One on each side, waiting for Frank’s arms to slip into the other end.

“Fuck.” Frank moaned, turning back to kiss Gerard hungrily. “You did say it would be good.”

“And I wasn’t lying,” Gerard said, finally getting Frank onto the bed, and getting the cuffs on his wrists. Frank tugged on them a bit to test them out and then nodded to Gerard. “Comfortable?”

Frank was about to nod, but then he pouted. “I can’t take pictures like this.”

“I can.” Gerard smiled and shook his head at Frank’s concern. He reached over to the nightstand to grab his own phone because Frank’s was probably thrown somewhere on the floor of his living room. Even though Frank’s iPhone took better photos, they were going to have to settle. Gerard straddled Frank’s hips, both of their breaths hitching a bit at all the skin contact. Gerard took a few pictures of Frank. His eyes looked hungry, looking straight into the camera, and then right at Gerard. He began straining just a bit against the handcuffs, now fully aware of how constrained he was from getting what he wanted.

“You’re gonna drag this on, aren’t you?” Frank asked.

Gerard simply shrugged and Frank hitched his knees up so that they pressed into Gerard’s back, causing him to surge forward. One of his hands landed on Frank’s chest, but he was still not as close as Frank wanted him. Gerard left his phone then and completely forgot about it. He definitely did drag it on, but Frank could not complain about any part of it. Gerard’s hands were softly exploring every inch of Frank’s skin, producing goosebumps wherever they touched. Frank moaned encouragingly as Gerard’s mouth did the same, but not so softly. He bit roughly at Frank’s most sensitive spots, like right over the birds on Frank’s hips, or the inner flesh of his thighs. By the time he moved on to actually fuck Frank, that hungry look in Frank’s eyes had turned to that of desperation, simply dying to get off.

Frank came first and then Gerard pulled out, rolled the condom off, and stroked himself through it while Frank watched as Gerard’s cum joined his over his stomach. Frank’s body was limp, arms hanging from the handcuffs. Gerard discarded the condom in the bathroom and got a wet towel to clean the both of them off. He then dug the keys out of the pockets of his jeans that were strewn on the floor, and began to undo the handcuffs from Frank’s wrists. He got one off and kissed Frank’s wrist where there were faint red lines from where Frank had tugged hard against his confinement. He went to undo the other one, but Frank put a lazy hand over Gerard’s.

“Take it off the bed, not my wrist,” he instructed Gerard softly. Gerard gave him a questioning look and Frank simply shrugged and said, “Pictures.”

Gerard couldn’t help but laugh again at Frank’s priorities and did as he said, undoing the side of the handcuffs that was linked to the bed, leaving the other side to hang off of Frank’s wrist.

“God, that was so, so _good_.” Frank whined as he stretched his body out over the bed. There was a lot of tension and soreness around his shoulders, but it was a good kind of pain, like the one he might feel in his spine after a really hard fuck that reminded him of how good it felt while it all happened.

Gerard had gone to the bathroom again to turn off the lights in there. Frank took Gerard’s phone from the nightstand to take some lazy pictures of himself, and when Gerard returned, he rolled to his side and stretched his arm out.

“Come be the little spoon,” Frank incited.

They were both shamelessly checking out the state they had left each other in. Their hair was a mess, their bodies moved sluggishly, completely tired out, and there was a permanent small and content smile on their faces, making them look so blissed out.

“But you’re automatically the little spoon,” Gerard argued, yet still got into bed and nestled his back into Frank’s chest.

“Small people can be big spoons, shut up,” Frank shot back lazily, kissing the back of Gerard’s neck. “Here.”

Frank handed Gerard his phone and the camera app was already on. Gerard put his arm out to get a proper angle. Frank draped his hand over Gerard so that the handcuffs were hanging over Gerard’s chest and buried his face into Gerard’s neck. Gerard snapped a few pictures, moving the phone to get different angles.

“Do you mind if I go on your blog and post them?” Frank asked. “I’m too lazy to go get my phone.”

“Yeah, sure, I’m logged in on the app,” Gerard replied, handing the phone back to Frank.

Frank took a moment to make the photos black and white on a photo editing app that Gerard had, and then proceeded to upload his three favorites. He wrote the caption, “He dragged me back here and isn’t letting me escape xoF” along with the tags _#not that I want to_ and _#fucking amazing_.

Gerard put the phone back on the nightstand when Frank was done and Frank searched in between their pillows for the key he had seen Gerard throw in there before so he could get the cuff off completely. Then, he tossed every item aside and cuddled back into Gerard’s side.

“I have a confession to make,” Frank whispered just before they both drifted off.

Gerard hummed sleepily.

“I don’t like being the big spoon,” Frank said.

Gerard’s body shook with laughter at that and he was awake enough to roll over and give Frank a kiss, before Frank rolled over as well, and Gerard held him from behind.

“Told you,” Gerard mumbled into his hair. “Small people are destined to be the little spoon.”

Frank rolled his eyes and didn’t bother with a comeback because having a warm body pressed up against his back was too great of a feeling for him to ever resist.

When Gerard woke up in the morning, he searched around the bed for Frank, but didn’t find him anywhere. He rolled over, eyes barely open and noticed the strong source of light coming from the ajar bathroom door, so Frank was most likely in there already. Gerard rolled onto his back and stayed there for a bit longer until he could form proper thoughts before sitting up. He cocked his head a bit to get a better look inside the bathroom and then he could see Frank sitting on the floor, in front of the toilet in a very awkward position. Gerard stood up to get a better look at what Frank was doing, trying to be as silent as possible. Frank was sitting down with his legs on each side of the toilet, and had the toilet lid down and a small mirror propped up on it. His face was close to the mirror and when Gerard realized what he was doing, he pressed a hand to his mouth to silence his laughter.

Frank was focused thoroughly on his reflection, holding a pair of tweezers, and _plucking his eyebrows._ Gerard scrambled for his phone and hoped, as he got closer, that Frank would not notice his reflection while he captured a few photos.

“I can see you,” Frank mumbled after Gerard had gotten about five pictures.

Gerard finally laughed out loud and walked into the bathroom, carefully walking around Frank without disturbing him, and sitting on the edge of the bathtub.

“I fucking knew it,” Gerard said. “They were too perfect to be true!”

“No one has a perfect arch, okay?” Frank muttered, mouth barely moving as he cocked his head to the side, put the tweezers close to his skin, and then tugged hard on a hair that Gerard could not see from where he sat. “Anyone who says they do is a liar.”

Gerard didn’t bother with a reply because he was busy taking another picture of Frank, getting a much clearer view from the angle he was in. He then posted it to Tumblr with the caption, “There’s no such thing as perfection, Frank Iero,” tagging Frank’s blog on the post and adding his _#frankenstein’s monster_ tag for everything related to Frank on his blog and finally a witty comment saying, _#iero’s perfect eyebrows are a myth_ , since Gerard knew how much people on the web had always commented on the immaculate shape of Frank’s eyebrows.

“Fucker,” Frank said, knowing exactly what he was doing.

Gerard, once again, chose not to comment. Instead he said, “I don’t have much stuff in the fridge, so I was thinking we should go out for breakfast and then come back here. Does that sound good?”

Frank hummed his agreement.

“Great. Then, I’m gonna take a shower since you take forever to get ready,” Gerard said, standing up.

Frank hummed again, and then picked the mirror up and held it close to his face, turning his face to look at both eyebrows and make sure there was no noticeable difference. He looked up at Gerard.

“Do they look even to you?” he asked.

Gerard didn’t have much expertise in that area, but he looked anyway, trying hard to compare both eyebrows. Seeing no flaws, he gave Frank two thumbs up, which earned him a large grin in response. Gerard hopped into the shower while Frank took his usual time lathering his hair in all his daily products.

The diner Gerard took Frank to later was one he frequented quite often, so he greeted everyone there with a smile and introduced Frank to those who prolonged the greetings to ask Gerard how he has been doing. Although the diner was quite large and had an elegant tone with its red and gold color scheme, it still maintained a very relaxed and homey atmosphere. Frank could imagine himself becoming well-accustomed to such a comfortable place very quickly. When it came to ordering, however, Frank was picky and asked Gerard a million and one questions about everything on the menu. About fifteen minutes had passed of them arguing about what Frank should order.

“Trust me, just order the same omelet I always get,” Gerard argued.

“Dude, number one rule of eating out with someone is you have to get different stuff so you can share,” Frank retorted. “Ugh, but nothing else looks good!”

“What about the pancakes?” Gerard asked.

“Boring.”

“The crepes?”

“Too sweet.”

“Frank!”

“What?”

Frank looked up at Gerard with eyes that were not feigning innocence. He was just naturally picky and saw absolutely nothing wrong with it. Gerard wanted to be annoyed, but he just found it all much too endearing.

“Okay, I’ll order something else, and you order the omelet I usually get,” Gerard suggested.

“But dude, chicken and cheese and eggs in the morning.” Frank cringed. “That’s a bit heavy.”

Gerard slapped the menu against his forehead and groaned impatiently.

“Okay, okay,” Frank finally said. “I’ll get the omelet and you get something else.”

“Finally!” Gerard sighed. He thought it would be time for lunch before they ever got a chance to order breakfast.

After that miniscule obstacle, the rest of the morning passed by smoothly. Frank stated that the omelet tasted like heaven, after tasting the crepe that Gerard ordered, states that it was another dimension of heaven. They headed back to Gerard’s apartment with full stomachs.

They spent their day exactly how they had hoped, lounging in Gerard’s bed. Gerard was on his laptop and Frank was on his.

People had of course sent them both a large amount of asks about their most recent encounter, and how it was going. The questions were getting more detailed and they would laugh about them before helping each other answer.

“This one is asking how big your dick is,” Gerard said with a laugh. “Should I crush their dreams and tell them it’s so fucking small?”

Frank scoffed. “No one would believe you, jerk.”

Gerard typed for a bit and then Frank grabbed the laptop from him to see his answer before he posted it. He’d written, “Hm well let’s not get too specific here, but lengthwise, I guess it’s average, but it’s thick. I like that. It’s a real nice mouthful whenever I blow him.”

Frank gave Gerard an approving nod, and then handed him his laptop. “This one says ‘Gerard said you guys had public sex already, where was it?’” Frank recited the anonymous question to Gerard. “How do you tell them we had public sex, but don’t specify where? You are so not fit to be a gay blogger.”

Gerard flipped him off. “I forget to elaborate sometimes, there’s so many questions!”

Frank answered the question with, “It was last weekend in a restroom at a bar. We were supposed to be watching an acoustic show, but I couldn’t help myself.”

“Ok, now I’m getting questions about what we _did_ ,” Gerard said just minutes later. “You suck at answering their questions fully, too!”

“I forget sometimes,” Frank said, lowering his voice so that he was obviously mocking Gerard and clicking his tongue amusingly afterwards.

They continued on with the questions for a while longer and then Frank browsed some posts that they were each tagged in. A lot of them were simply text posts raving and squealing over the fact that Frank and Gerard were hanging out and blogging together and once again, many posts about “OUR OTP LIVES!” that always brought a smile to both their faces.

Frank held his phone out above them as far as he could to get a picture of them together. Frank was laying on his back, laptop over his chest, and Gerard was slouched against the headboard, his laptop on a pillow in his lap. It was the perfect angle, so he posted it with the caption, “Here we have two gay bloggers in their natural habitat.”

“You’re such a dork,” Gerard said with a snort when he saw the post.

Later on, they ordered pizza as a late lunch and early dinner and took a break from blogging to watch random videos on YouTube. They started off by watching some of their favorite video bloggers, watching some of their favorite old music videos, and by the end of the night they were sure they had watched nearly every single fail video of people falling and hurting themselves that existed. They had laughed their energy completely out of them and with their laptops abandoned on the floor, they lay in bed looking completely spent as though they had done something exasperatedly physical.

“You know after answering all those questions, our followers probably think we’re fucking now.” Gerard yawned. “But I’m, like, really too tired for that.”

“Shit me, too,” Frank agreed, his own yawn answering to Gerard’s. “But I’ll totally blow you when we wake up to make up for it.”

“Mm, that sounds good.”

They decided to just cuddle close to each other, ignoring the fact that they had not changed from the clothes they spent the whole day in, and fell asleep so quickly, one would think they did just have sex.

Once again, Frank woke up in the morning before Gerard. He smiled at Gerard, who took up most of the bed because he really spread his limbs out when he slept, as opposed to Frank who curled up mainly on one side. Gerard’s mouth always hung open in his sleep and there was just a bit of drool at the corner of his mouth.

“You’re so gross,” Frank said in his most affectionate sleepy tone.

Frank placed his mouth over Gerard’s neck and simply breathed there for a minute until he felt Gerard’s body begin to stir. Then he began mouthing at it, stroking the area with his tongue, and he knew Gerard was waking up then. Gerard’s body tensed and Frank bit lightly right under his jaw, causing Gerard to let out a sound that was halfway between a groan and a moan. Frank moved his hand down to Gerard’s pants and palmed at his crotch.

Gerard was definitely awake now because he put a hand over Frank’s, making Frank’s movements firmer, and Frank smirked into his now wet neck.

“I told you I’d suck you off in the morning,” Frank whispered.

“Yes, please,” Gerard breathed out.

Frank descended Gerard’s body, undid his pants, and kept his promise. Gerard was struck with an unbelievable amount of laziness for a while after he came, simply lying there with his hand in Frank’s hair, staring down at Frank who didn’t stop mouthing and breathing heavily along the bit of Gerard’s stomach that was exposed. Gerard wondered how Frank was still moving after the mind-blowing orgasm he just had, and then he remembered that he came but Frank didn’t, and wanted to smack his sleepy self on the forehead.

Gerard sprang into action then, pushing Frank onto his back, and returning the favor, soon leaving Frank in the same tired out state he was in.

“I thought you were gonna neglect my hard-on for a second.” Frank laughed, adjusting his pants once he’d come down from his post orgasm haze.

“I am a gentleman,” Gerard replied, exaggerating his offended voice. “I can’t believe you’d think that of me, Franklin.”

“Franklin?” Frank laughed so hard he felt a jab to his side. He had no idea why it was all so funny; he was just in unbelievably high spirits that morning. Laziness and blowjobs in Gerard’s bed apparently left him in a really good mood.

“Yes, Franklin,” Gerard said sternly; he began speaking with a horrible impersonation of a British accent and Frank was laughing all over again. “I don’t see what you find so hilarious, Franklin, this is a serious matter.”

Once Frank was done with his laughing fit, he rolled onto Gerard to shut him up. It worked and he gave Gerard a quick peck on the lips.

“You are such a dork.” Frank chuckled and Gerard just had to smile back; there was no way he couldn’t.

“Well you laughed so you’re a dork, too,” Gerard mused, puckering his lips up stupidly for another kiss. Frank gave it to him, but they were laughing throughout the short little pecks and then they finally decided to get out of bed. Gerard told Frank to go ahead and get ready since he would be leaving soon, and went to the kitchen to prepare them each a mug of coffee. He sat on the toilet lid, sipping at his coffee and holding Frank’s mug in his other hand, handing it to him whenever he wanted a sip. The counter was littered with Frank’s hair products, so there was no place for his drink.

“You’re taking a train to New York, is the hair really necessary?” Gerard asked halfway through Frank’s daily hair routine.

“Yes, because people are gonna see me, and I’m going to lunch with my parents,” Frank defended. “Also, shut up, you dick. You’re jealous my hair is better.”

“Mm, totally.”

Later on, Gerard took Frank to the train station, following the same routine as their previous weekend.

“This time, you have to come visit me,” Frank said, leaning against the side of Gerard’s arm, while they waited for his boarding time to arrive.

“Next weekend?” Gerard suggested and he was about to backtrack because maybe wanting to spend every single weekend with Frank would seem weird.

“I am totally down with that,” Frank answered, lifting his head to grin up at Gerard.

It was time for Frank to go and they agreed to discuss their plans over the course of the week, not that they needed to actually agree to it because they talked for most parts of every day anyway.

For the following week, while they waited for their time to be together again, neither of them had any new hook-ups. It was not a consciously made decision, nor was it something they related to each other; it was simply a matter of not feeling the desire or urge to do so for the time being.

**

When Gerard got out of the cab outside of Frank’s apartments, he stood gaping at the building before him. He knew Frank was well off when it came to money, considering that he did not have a stable job since his attorney parents paid for everything. But the extravagant looking building, looking as though it was made entirely of glass, winking at him where the sun glinted off of it just right, was showing Gerard that he had absolutely no idea how “well off” Frank really was. He found a new admiration for Frank, since he had never been too obvious or showy about it.

Gerard forced himself to look like he did not have the desire to stare at every detail inside the building, making his way to the elevator, and then down the high-ceiling hall as though he could afford to live somewhere as beautiful as this.

“Finally!” Frank greeted him at the door, launching himself into Gerard’s arms for a quick hug before dragging him in.

Frank’s apartment was huge, of course. Just his living room alone was probably the size of Gerard’s entire living space. His eyes had just begun to wander when Frank was tugging him down a hallway that was decked out in various paintings, and into one of the bedrooms.

“Leave your stuff in here and change if you want,” Frank said, turning to face a mirror that hung on the wall of his bedroom. He adjusted his hair – which he had styled upwards that day – for a moment and then turned to face Gerard, who was staring at the large window that encompassed most of one wall, giving an amazing view of the New York skyline. The sun was just about to set, orange specks of the sky peeking out from behind buildings. “Nice view, huh?”

Gerard snapped out of his daze and looked at Frank, smiling and nodding.

“I can’t wait to fall asleep to that tonight,” Gerard said, setting his backpack on the edge of the bed, and digging through it to get something to wear.

“I always sleep on the side next to the window actually, so you might not get to.” Frank shrugged, giving Gerard a teasing smile before exiting the room to prepare last minute things.

Frank had decided to have a party the same weekend that Gerard was visiting. They had a lot of mutual acquaintances in New York and Gerard hardly ever got to see them, so it seemed like the perfect opportunity to do so.

Gerard kept the jeans he had on and changed out of his shirt, opting to go for a plaid button down shirt because Frank was not the only person fond of plaid shirts. Since he did not take anywhere near as much time as Frank to get ready, that was all he needed to do. Gerard looked around for a place to leave his backpack. He checked the double doors in one corner of the room and of course they opened to a huge walk-in closet.

People began filing in just as the day steadily turned into night. At first Gerard did not recognize any of them, so Frank had to introduce him to everyone. Gerard was horrible with names, though, and as hard as he tried, he couldn’t hold on to any of the new names he was supposed to learn for more than a minute. Fortunately, people he actually knew through Tumblr finally showed up, and Gerard greeted every single one of them enthusiastically without introductions being needed.

The party had kicked off, loud music that varied from techno to classic punk rock blaring so that everyone had to yell just to talk to one another. Everyone was fairly drunk as well, just about an hour into the party. Frank and Gerard wandered around together. It was Frank hosting the party, not Gerard, and yet Gerard felt as though he had to be next to Frank whenever he went to adjust a speaker or set out another box of pizza for the hungry guests. It was no surprise that people assumed they were a couple.

“So how come you guys haven’t announced it yet?” Becky, a good friend of both Gerard’s and Frank’s, asked.

Becky was sitting on the floor, legs crossed, with a beer propped on her knee. Frank and Gerard and a few other friends sat on the sofa. Becky had them fixed with an inquisitive stare, glancing back and forth between them as though she was slowly analyzing everything about their posture and body language.

“We’re not a couple, Becks,” Frank said, shaking his head and laughing. “We’ve told you that like ten times tonight.”

“And I’ve told you a million times online, too,” Gerard added.

Even though Becky was a close friend that had gotten to know them through her love for all forms of photography, she made it no secret that she was just as much a fangirl of the two of them together as she was a friend.

“Really.” She blankly stared up at them from behind her black rimmed glasses and ginger bangs.

“Don’t worry too much, we’re still on the market,” Gerard said, smirking at her.

“Whatever.” She laughed, rolling her eyes.

Becky was not the only one to make that assumption. Even Frank’s best friend, Shaun, pulled him away from all the noise for a moment to scold him.

“I’m your number one internet and real life friend and you don’t even tell me you have a boyfriend?” he had asked heatedly, looking offended. He also looked extremely drunk, and possibly high.

Frank had to tell Shaun that there was nothing serious between himself and Gerard, and that even if there was, they would not keep it a secret from anyone, which should have been obvious considering that everything about their sex life was public.

The party went on, and fortunately, the relationship inquisitions notably decreased.

“Would it be rude of the party host to ditch his party for a little bit?” Frank asked, tossing an empty pizza box into a trash bag that was already filled to the brim with garbage.

“Why would you?” Gerard asked, cocking his head to the side. He was leaning back against the counter.

Frank dusted his hands off on his jeans and then walked over to Gerard, bracketing Gerard’s body with his arms, hands planted on the counter behind him.

“Because I’m kind of really turned on,” Frank slurred breathily. They were both just looming on the edge of being tipsy.

“When are you not?” Gerard chuckled.

Frank opened his mouth, looking ready to retort with something witty, but hesitated and shut it again, shaking his head.

“I’m honestly too drunk to play the teasing game,” he said with a small laugh, his nose wrinkling with it.

“Fine by me.”

Gerard shrugged and leaned in, lips crashing against Frank’s. Their kiss was calm and controlled for about two seconds, before their hunger took over completely. Gerard was tugging on the collar of Frank’s shirt, pulling him closer, even though Frank was already pressing his body up against Gerard’s, rolling his hips forward. The friction was nowhere near satisfactory, but just enough to have them groaning loudly into each other’s mouths.

They were interrupted by someone loudly yelling, “Live action!” When they reluctantly pulled away to see who it was, Becky grinning was from behind her phone that was in position to have snapped a few photos.

Gerard and Frank burst out laughing at her excited expression. With a smug smile, Becky stood her ground and kept her phone’s camera pointed at them.

“Don’t let me stop you,” she said when she saw that Frank and Gerard were not moving on from their drunken giggles.

Gerard and Frank tried to act sultry for the sake of Becky’s photos, but all three of them were laughing stupidly and making it impossible to get a clear shot. Eventually, they ended up back in the living room, talking to anyone and everyone as though they were childhood friends with every guest.

When conversations dragged on too long for Frank’s attention span to keep up, he would turn to Gerard and distract them both by planting kisses up Gerard’s neck. Gerard would lean into it, fingers making a steady path up and down Frank’s jean-clad thigh. No one would comment on the fact that Gerard and Frank kept pulling themselves out of every conversation. It started to feel natural to everyone there, Frank and Gerard included.

The party was finally over. Everyone had left and Frank’s apartment was a mess. He was much too lazy to care, so after saying goodbye to the final guest, he grabbed Gerard by the wrist and dragged him into the bedroom. The party had exhausted them both, so they were not able to do much other than make out on the bed for a while, and then exchange messy handjobs.

“Dammit.” Frank groaned after they both came. “I wanted to actually fuck you this time.”

Gerard laughed lazily and attempted to pat Frank’s head, missing completely, and putting his hand on Frank’s bare shoulder instead.

“Maybe next time.” Gerard yawned. “But now, we sleep.”

**

Gerard woke up the next morning to the soft sound of music being played from somewhere in Frank’s apartment. He found Frank in the living room, running around with a trash bag in hand, and cleaning the mess of things that had been left scattered around his house from the night before.

Gerard stood at the end of the hallway watching Frank for a moment. He hadn’t yet noticed Gerard’s presence, and was gathering empty cups and bottles from atop one of his coffee tables. All he had on was a pair of low hanging sweats as his hips swayed to the beat of the music he had going.

“Good morning,” he said when he finally noticed Gerard standing there and watching him. Frank gave him a full yet brief grin and went straight back to cleaning.

“Well, this is a nice view to wake up to,” Gerard said as he went over to the kitchen to get another trash bag to help Frank make the cleaning process go a lot faster.

“The place looks disgusting, there is nothing good about this view,” Frank huffed, bending over to inspect a small stain on one of his sofas.

“I was talking about you, idiot.” Gerard laughed and bumped his hip against Frank’s when he walked by him.

Frank stood up and smiled at that. “Oh, my bad,” he said with a stupidly wide grin on his face. “Thanks.”

Frank turned up the music and they went on picking up the trash and putting things back where they belonged. Frank was about to attack all the stains he’d seen, but then decided against it because it would take way too much out of his day. He shrugged it off and said he would call someone to do a deep cleaning of all the furniture instead.

Other than the stains that Gerard hardly noticed, the apartment finally looked the way it had when Gerard arrived the day before. Gerard took a seat by one of the many windows in Frank’s living room while Frank went into the kitchen to get them both some much deserved coffee.

They sat together, drinking their coffee, and checking their blogs. Quite a few pictures of Frank’s party were circulating around everywhere, especially those of Frank and Gerard together. There were a couple that were courtesy of none other than Becky when she’d caught them kissing in the kitchen – they were the most popular, too – and the rest were by other guests of the small kisses they had exchanged throughout the night. Comments about how cute they looked together, and that they were undoubtedly a couple, accompanied a majority of the posts.

Gerard had even received some pictures submitted to his inbox of himself from the party with messages exclaiming how happy everyone was to have Gerard back to blogging regularly. Frank was really curious to explore this subject.

“So many people are saying they’re happy you’re back,” Frank commented, hoping that Gerard would take the bait and further the conversation.

Gerard did not. He simply hummed in acknowledgement and said absolutely nothing else regarding his absence from Tumblr. Around April of the previous year, Gerard disappeared from Tumblr completely unannounced. He did not delete anything or make a post about leaving. Most people would have assumed the worst had he not had acquaintances that still saw him occasionally. When that had happened, he and Frank had not met yet. They were both popular blogs so they were on a mutual follow, but they had never actually spoken to each other. Gerard went back to blogging a few months later in August in the same fashion that he had left: completely unannounced. He ignored all questions that had to do with his absence and fell back into a regular routine of blogging and meeting people.

Frank could tell that Gerard would not be commenting on it any further, so he announced their plans for lunch that day. He told Gerard the location would be a surprise and that they should begin getting ready.

Gerard kept bugging Frank, saying how he could not handle surprises because he was too curious. Frank ignored him and went on fixing his hair. Gerard continued pestering during their cab ride over and Frank had to shut him up with wandering hands and a mouth on his neck.

“I’m not really into comics like you, but I found this place and I thought you’d like it,” Frank introduced the surprise as they finally got out of the cab.

“Frank!” Gerard squealed. They stood in front of a restaurant called Gotham City Lounge and Gerard could not care less about anything else; the name had already impressed him. “This is awesome!”

Frank smiled at Gerard’s excited expression as he ran over to the small mural painted on the front of the restaurant. There was a painting of Batman and Superman that Gerard was gawking over.

“I’m gonna be such a tourist, but I don’t care,” Gerard said, handing Frank his phone so that he could get a picture.

Frank shook his head and laughed as he took a picture of Gerard staring up at Batman with a hand over his own forehead as though he was swooning over him.

“Got it,” Frank said with a grin.

“Okay, your turn!” Gerard said, taking the camera and pushing Frank to the mural.

Frank looked up at Superman that stood high above him. There was a small bench against the wall, so he hopped up onto it, and pretended to be punching Superman in the face.

“He would kick your ass,” Gerard said after he got the picture.

“Would not,” Frank protested with a scoff, stepping off the bench.

Before they went inside, Gerard asked a random girl passing by to get a picture of them together. They stood in front of Batman with their arms around each other, Frank’s temple just slightly resting against Gerard’s shoulder. They thanked the girl and went inside to eat. It was a small and cozy bar with comic book memorabilia littered all around them. Frank only recognized some things, while Gerard squawked over every little thing he saw, rambling on about certain items Frank was completely clueless about. Frank had to admit that he enjoyed it, though. He always enjoyed Gerard’s company, and definitely Gerard’s random bouts of excitement, so it was no surprise.

After they had lunch, they headed back to Frank’s apartment. Gerard would be leaving by train later that night, so they had a few hours to spare.

Gerard sat against the headboard of the bed with Frank’s back resting against his chest. Frank was on his laptop so that he could post the pictures they had taken at Gotham City Lounge.

“I swear, I think a lot of the girls like these pictures more,” Frank mused, scrolling through a few of the notes the photos had already received. “I mean I’m half naked in some pictures, and these get way more notes!”

Gerard chuckled, kissing distractedly at the back of Frank’s neck. “Well, most followers come for the soft porn and gay action and stuff,” he said with a shrug, “but then they end up curious about this basic shit, you know?”

“Especially your followers,” Frank agreed. “I mean, like, some of mine are curious, but I got way more curious followers after we started talking. I guess it’s ‘cause you’ve been around longer.”

Gerard hummed and nosed Frank’s collar out of the way to kiss along the start of his shoulder. Frank sighed and hung his head forward until he remembered where he was going with the conversation. He lifted his head up then.

“Even with the break you took,” Frank added, trying not to be too obvious, “they were still there waiting for you to get back…”

Gerard hummed again, his mouth still working over Frank’s skin.

“And they totally got over not knowing why you left, you know?”

Gerard finally stopped the small kisses and laughed into Frank’s neck, tightening his embrace around Frank’s torso.

“You’re not fucking subtle at all,” Gerard said. “You just wanna know why I left.”

Frank was about to deny it fervently, but then decided that he may as well be honest; it gave him a better chance of getting something out of Gerard. He shrugged and nodded.

“So you take me to sweet restaurants to get secrets out of me, huh?” Gerard poked Frank’s side.

“At least I’m not trying to buy sex,” Frank retorted.

“Only ‘cause you get that for free.”

“Well, was my money wasted then or what?” Frank had turned his body a bit so that he could look right at Gerard when he spoke.

Gerard could usually resist opening up to people – he had done it plenty of times already – and yet he had a hard time containing himself with Frank looking back at him expectantly. It was strange because self-control had always been his strong suit.

“I don’t usually tell people,” Gerard said with a sigh. “I mean, shit, the only people that know are my brother and some guy I haven’t talked to in forever.”

“I swear I’ll keep it a secret,” Frank promised, moving out of Gerard’s arms so he could sit across from him.

Gerard stared at him for a moment, trying to find the will to resist opening up. The search was futile and in just a matter of seconds, he found himself spilling his longest kept secret to Frank.

“I was working at a daycare for, like, five months – well technically, it was already over a year, because I worked part time while I was going to school and then I started full time after I graduated. Anyways, like five months into the job, one of the parents reported me to my boss. They found my blog, and they didn’t feel right about having someone like me working with their kids.”

“Someone like you,” Frank repeated with a raised eyebrow.

“Running an… explicit blog I guess, and being gay,” Gerard said with a shrug. “I guess the whole gay factor just topped it off and they literally told my boss they were afraid I might do something to their kids.”

“They were worried about you being a pedophile??” Frank gawked. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me…”

Gerard shrugged again, attempting to dismiss it as though he no longer cared. It was still a big deal to him, and always would be, but he did what he could to stop himself from being hung up over it. He had done enough of that to last a lifetime.

“After they fired me, I kind of hated my blog,” Gerard continued. “I don’t think I deserved to be fired or anything, but I just couldn’t even log onto Tumblr. I really loved that job. I knew all the kids and all the parents and, I mean, working at a daycare was what I wanted to do. There was no chance of finding a job somewhere else, though. It would just be a repeat, you know? I was totally set on never going back to Tumblr, but I can’t lie, I missed it a lot. I was killing myself for those few months; I had nothing to do and couldn’t even vent on Tumblr or to my friends. I went back ‘cause I knew I’d go crazy without it, and I probably wouldn’t be working at a daycare again, so no harm in going back.”

“That’s…” Frank shook his head and looked down. “I can’t believe they fired you over that, holy shit. There’s gotta be some, like, discrimination thing against that, right?”

“Yeah you’re not supposed to discriminate against things like race or sexuality, blah blah, but that doesn’t mean employers don’t do it,” Gerard said. “It still happens, obviously.”

“I would have fucked up that parent,” Frank fumed. “Homophobic asshole. Being gay does not make you more likely to be a pedophile, _God_. And, wow, how the hell did he even find your blog?? I doubt he came across a blog like yours by accident.”

“I know.” Gerard sighed, but shrugged for the millionth time while discussing this topic. “But it’s done now. Working at Toys ‘R’ Us isn’t as good, but it’s better than nothing. I mean I have kids coming in looking for a toy and they have no idea what Star Wars is and then I get them going home with Star Wars stuff and asking their mom or dad to watch the movies. It’s not even part of my job.” He paused to laugh and shake his head at himself. “But that’s the best thing I can pull from it. It makes the shitty parts okay.”

“That’s cute.” Frank smiled. He knew he should have probably said more, especially seeing how Gerard was still blatantly so down about what happened. His curious mind always ended him up in situations he could not handle. Comforting people was not his forte, so a tense silence surrounded them

“God, see this is why I don’t talk about it!” Gerard groaned with a small smile on his face. “It’s such a downer!”

“No, no,” Frank said, shaking his head. “Well, I mean yeah it’s a downer, but it’s okay, I’m just not good at talking shit out.”

“Ah, it’s cool.”

It was not cool, though, at least not to Frank. Gerard had opened up to him about something extremely personal, and Frank felt so infuriated by the fact that Gerard had to go through that, yet he could not do anything to make him feel better.

Frank resorted to the only method he could think of. He got up on his knees and leaned forward towards Gerard, pulling him in for a sudden kiss. Gerard went willingly, mouth opening up to Frank without question. Frank trailed kisses along Gerard’s jaw and down his neck, nipping lightly at the sensitive skin.

“I can’t talk your problems away,” Frank mumbled, “but my mouth can do other things, you know…”

“Yeah?” Gerard asked breathily, hand already threaded into Frank’s hair.

Frank’s mouth could do many things, and do them well, so he pushed Gerard down onto the bed, kissing every bit of skin on Gerard’s body that he could reach. Every time Gerard tried to do something, whether it be touch himself or touch Frank, Frank swatted his hands away.

“I’m helping _you_ feel better, so leave this to me,” he would grumble and then resume his path of kissing and sucking.

Gerard managed to do as he was told, fingers aching from clenching onto the sheets with all his strength. It took all of his willpower not to grab Frank when he started sucking him off, and even more when Frank started stroking himself while his mouth did its work on Gerard’s cock.

After they both came, Frank licked his lips, looking down at Gerard with a satisfied smirk.

“Your mouth did a great job.” Gerard sighed happily, eyes shut and body completely limp on the bed. “I feel so much better.”

Frank adjusted his own pants and then went to do the same for Gerard. He was about to say something cocky about how his mouth never failed when he remembered something.

“Motherfucker!”

“What’s wrong?” Gerard asked, peeking up at him through one eye.

“I didn’t fuck you… again.” Frank whined with an entirely serious look on his face.

Gerard could do nothing but laugh at how seriously disappointed Frank sounded. He pulled at Frank’s shirt so that he lay next to him, and patted his head.

“Maybe next time,” he said.

“You said that last time,” Frank muttered. He wrapped his arms around Gerard.

“Not my fault you’re a natural bottom.”

“Fuck you.” Frank scoffed. “Never blowing you ever again.”

“Sure, sure,” Gerard trailed off. He knew an empty threat when he heard one.

When Frank accompanied Gerard to the train station, they agreed for another visit. Frank would be going to Gerard’s place the following weekend and asked if he could stay until Wednesday so that he could go to a gig on Tuesday night. Gerard agreed of course, flattered by the fact that Frank had plenty of friends in Jersey and chose to stay at Gerard’s place.

With that in mind, Gerard found himself thinking about Frank more than usual that entire week. It was undoubtedly the fact that Frank knew one of Gerard’s biggest secrets that made him see Frank in a different light. Gerard loved all of the people he had met online, but when it came to the people he hooked up with, it was different. If he hooked up with someone, it was either the sex that was better than the conversation, or vice versa. Even with Gerard’s closest friends, like Adam who was his best friend, the sex was good, but he would choose a nice conversation with him over the sex any day. To Gerard, that was normal. What was not normal was the fact that Frank was an exception.

Gerard enjoyed the sex with Frank – he had admitted to himself that Frank was probably the best hook up – and he enjoyed the conversations they had just as much, no more and no less. He had not been in a relationship in the longest time, but being with Frank felt like they were in a relationship already. He had even lost the desire to have another hook up, because he could not imagine anyone comparing to what he did with Frank.

Things with Frank felt like more than a friendship, but could they actually handle it? They were two guys, notorious for the many people they slept with on a regular basis. How would they manage being in a stable relationship? There was also the possibility of making a move and asking Frank only to be shut down and then lose their friendship. Gerard was not the type to suppress his feelings, though, even if it was to save the friendship. Now that he knew exactly what he felt for Frank, he knew he had to be straightforward.

Gerard had never actually asked someone out before. Any relationships he had just naturally fell into place without him or the other person having to ask. He wondered for a while how to do it, and on Thursday night after work, he finally had the perfect idea. Since he and Frank had met through Tumblr, asking him out using Tumblr seemed like the logical thing to do.

Gerard looked through his phone for a picture of them together. He came across one they had taken at Frank’s apartment. They were standing in front of a full length mirror in Frank’s room, smiling at the camera and holding hands. It was one of the rare photos of them together that was actually innocent. Gerard stared at it for a while. How happy he felt just looking at the photo of them together solidified his feelings for Frank and what he was about to do.

He used Photoshop to add text to the photo. He was in a hurry so he did not bother editing the photo in any other way. He wrote, “Thousands of people ship us, and I think I’m starting to ship us, too. Wanna make it official?” He uploaded it on Tumblr, and just to clarify added, _#in case you didn’t get it I’m asking you out_ , in the tags, tagged Frank, and posted it.

Then, he lay back on his bed and waited.

He saw that the post got a large amount of notes and reached over a thousand in an alarmingly short amount of time. Gerard knew that Frank was out to dinner with his parents, so it would be awhile before he got a response. In the meantime, his inbox was flooded with messages, varying from squealing about how he had done the cutest thing ever and where Frank was and why he had not responded yet. Gerard kept trying to calm everyone down by telling them that Frank was out, but then he began getting anxious himself as it got later into the night.

After an hour of constantly refreshing Frank’s blog, Gerard saw Frank make a new post. It said, “ok I have more shit in my inbox than usual and I’m scared to check them… who did I piss off??” Gerard’s heart hammered in his chest, still refreshing the page. Another post showed up that said, “a lot of keyboard smashes guys, not helping.” Gerard clicked the notes on that post and saw people saying, “CHECK YOUR TAGS”, which Gerard was grateful for, because he wanted Frank to see that photo before anything else.

For a couple minutes, Frank did not post anything. Gerard felt ready to puke because of how nervous he felt. He even sat up on the bed; his stomach was curling in tight waves and giving him a very unpleasant feeling, so much so that he wanted to turn back time and take back this stupid decision. It was much too nerve-wracking.

Finally, after a ridiculous amount of clicks refreshing Frank’s page, Gerard saw the top of the photo he posted show up on Frank’s blog. Frank had reblogged it. Gerard held his breath as he scrolled down at an excruciatingly slow pace, afraid to see what Frank had added, if anything. He had his eyes shut for a few seconds when he reached the bottom of the photo. With another deep breath, he opened his eyes.

Frank had added his answer to the post. He had written, “FUCK Y E S!” and upon seeing that, Gerard felt his heart grow wings and flutter inside his chest in the most pleasant and absolutely cheesy way possible. When he left himself fall backwards until he was lying down on his bed again, he was grinning so hard it hurt. Frank had agreed, and they were officially a couple. It was scary and yet so wonderful, and Gerard could not even compose his thoughts to have a proper reaction.

Gerard’s phone rang then and he knew it would be Frank. He answered and before he could say anything, Frank said, “You should have waited till tomorrow so I could kiss you, you idiot.”

Gerard laughed loudly, all his previous anxieties coming out with it. “But if you said no, you staying here would have been _really_ awkward.”

Frank laughed right back, and Gerard was beyond pleased to hear that his laugh had that same giddy edge to it as Gerard’s.

“You’re an idiot,” Frank said, the grin on his face evident through his voice. “I really wanna kiss you right now, though. So it sucks.”

“Sorry.” Gerard chuckled. “Tomorrow, though.”

“Definitely,” Frank agreed. “I’m gonna kiss you ten times more than I usually do.”

“I can’t wait.”

After the initial nervous and excited chuckles, with a small amount of awkward silences, they drifted back into talking comfortably as they always did, except this time around it was about their feelings for each other. They had both been on the same page for a while. The feelings had definitely been there, but they had not been sure about how strong those feelings were, considering that they had similar interactions with other people all the time.

“You’re different, though,” Frank spoke softly from the other end of the phone. Gerard just lay there, wishing desperately he had Frank cuddled up beside him beneath the sheets. He had the sudden urge to entwine his legs with Frank’s, and imagined himself doing just that.

“Am I?” he asked.

“Very,” Frank said. “It’s like… I dunno. It’s stupid.”

“I already spilled my feelings, Frank, now it’s your turn. I’m sure it’s not stupid.”

Frank sighed and took a moment to gather his thoughts. “I guess, like, I never really even wanted a relationship. Hooking up with friends and then going on to hook up with someone else was good ‘cause I always felt like I would get sick of being with the same person all the time? Oh, man, that makes me sound like an asshole.”

“No, no it doesn’t,” Gerard interrupted. “I get it. I mean, obviously, I do. I was doing the same thing.”

“Yeah, well, I guess I thought I was always gonna be like that. I mean, even with my friends, I can’t be seeing and hanging out with one friend for a long time. I don’t even know, I just need breaks from them sometimes, and it’s not about them, that’s just me. But, with you…” There was a long pause and Gerard did not say anything, allowing Frank to take his time. “I don’t ever feel tired of seeing you and talking to you. I mean we have been talking every day for I don’t even know how long, and we’ve spent like three weekends together, and shit one weekend is usually it for me if it’s anyone else. But, yeah, I just. I wouldn’t even mind spending every single day with you, shit, I wish I could, and that has never happened to me before.”

Frank stopped talking, waiting for Gerard to respond, but the other end of the phone was extremely silent, which made Frank nervous.

“Uh, you still there?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Gerard answered suddenly, sounding like he was holding his breath. “Shit, that was just really, really sweet and I’m trying to keep myself from, like, squealing in your ear right now.”

“Oh my god.” Frank groaned. “Shut up.”

“You started it by being sweet!”

“Well, you started it by asking me out,” Frank argued.

“You started everything ‘cause you followed me first,” Gerard retorted.

“I…” Frank had no argument against that so he huffed a breath. “You totally just ruined my moment.”

“Nah, it’s still really sweet.” Gerard smiled. “I feel the same way, you know. I wish you could be here every day.”

“Tomorrow,” Frank said. “And all the way until Wednesday.”

They continued talking through the night about how excited all their followers must be, until they were both yawning between every few words. It was so strange how going to sleep, simply knowing that they were in a relationship, could make them both ten times happier, and make their sleep that much more peaceful.

Gerard spent the following day beyond giddy, unable to maintain much focus at work because the only thing on his mind was picking up Frank from the train station that evening. After his shift was finally over, he hurried over and could not even be bothered to go home and change first.

Waiting for Frank to arrive was a real testament to the small amount of patience Gerard had. He was ready to jump out of his skin from how slow time was dragging on. When the train finally got there, a crowd of people filed out of the doors and finally, there was Frank. He was wearing plaid, as usual, and had a medium-sized carry-on case rolling on wheels behind him. He strolled casually until he spotted Gerard amongst the small bustle of bodies and broke out into a run, a huge grin stretched across his face. When he was just a couple feet away, he let go of his bag, and launched himself at Gerard.

Gerard grunted with the force of Frank’s body hitting him, but managed to keep them both standing upright. Frank stood on his tip-toes so that he could bury his head into Gerard’s neck, his arms slung over Gerard’s shoulders. Gerard’s own arms were wrapped around Frank’s waist, leaving little to no space between their bodies. Frank’s hair tickled Gerard’s nose and he could smell that familiar scent of the millions of products Frank used daily. It hit him then how much he loved that smell, and how much he loved holding Frank in his arms the way he was just now. All of these sensations had been so casual before, and in that moment, they suddenly meant _something_.

Frank pulled back and stood properly on his feet, back to being inches shorter than Gerard. He stared up at his new boyfriend, biting his bottom lip abashedly and Gerard could somehow sense exactly what Frank wanted. He leaned down and pressed his lips to Frank’s. Frank’s hands slipped into Gerard’s hair on pure instinct, pulling him down and having to bend back a bit in the process. There had always been an undeniable connection and spark whenever they kissed, but the feeling they both had at the pits of their stomachs was something entirely foreign. The simple fact that they were officially boyfriends gave way to an overwhelming sense of belonging right there, close together, feeling as though the noise of the world around them was entirely nonexistent.

Gerard felt breathless, even on their walk to the car with their hands linked, and especially in the car, with Frank’s hands constantly on him. Frank was biting his lip again, smirking whenever Gerard gave him a pleading look to stop, but he was not the least bit deterred. His hands went from Gerard’s arm, to his hand, to his thighs, and even to his neck, caressing it with the slightest touch of his fingertips.

“You’re killing me,” Gerard would mumble and Frank would simply continue.

When they arrived to Gerard’s apartment complex, Frank managed to keep his hands to himself, innocently holding Gerard’s hand in his. Gerard, though, was strung up. As soon as they were in the elevator, he pressed Frank up against the wall and kissed him hot and slow, causing them both to groan loudly, drowning out the sound of whatever elevator music was playing. The uneasiness in their stomachs caused by the elevator’s movement was turned pleasant by the sensations coursing between the two of them.

They finally made it to Gerard’s floor, and when they got into Gerard’s apartment, Frank took the lead. He didn’t bother going to the bedroom and simply pushed Gerard down onto his small sofa, straddling him.

“I top this time,” Frank said proudly, sliding his hands up Gerard’s chest.

“You’re just saying that.” Gerard scoffed. “You’re gonna end up wanting me to.”

Frank got even more adamant then, maintaining control the entire time. Gerard kept trying to tempt him, reaching behind Frank to tease around his entrance. As tempting as it was, Frank resisted, swatting Gerard’s hands away. Gerard only wanted to tease Frank since he had wanted to top for so long, but once things got going, he got lost in it all. Frank’s movements were so precise, and the slower they got, the stronger the force with which they hit Gerard. Each thrust sent ripples of heat through Gerard’s gut and he felt himself grow close to a climax faster than he ever had before.

They lay on the sofa after finishing, bodies spent, and chests still heaving quite a bit as they tried to catch their breaths. Frank was on top of Gerard, his head fitting comfortably against Gerard’s neck, and Gerard had his arms wrapped around Frank.

“You know, you have a really nice ass,” Gerard said randomly.

Frank laughed tiredly, muffled by Gerard’s skin against his mouth. “Glad you like it.”

“Hey, give me your phone.”

Frank pushed himself up off of Gerard so he could reach down to the floor in search for his phone. He got it out of the pocket of his pants and gave it to Gerard, settling back down in the comfortable position he had been in.

Gerard ran a slow hand along Frank’s back and over the curve of his ass, causing Frank to squirm against him.

“Hold still,” Gerard instructed softly, and so Frank did, trying his hardest not to move even when he felt Gerard’s fingers give him a light squeeze. He then heard the sound of his phone’s camera going off, so he nuzzled his face into Gerard’s neck and waited for him to finish.

“Don’t get my tattoo in the picture,” Frank mumbled.

“Why?” Gerard asked, pausing his picture taking.

“Because it’s embarrassing, _duh_.” Frank groaned. “I’ll destroy you. Do not get it.”

“Yeah, yeah, okay,” Gerard said, holding in his laughter because it was a strange tattoo. He had only gotten quick glimpses of it before and never really questioned it. “What does it mean anyway?”

Frank chose not to respond, and Gerard poked the tattoo on his ass.

“Ugh, shut up, let’s not talk about this tattoo, okay?” Frank said, lifting his head up to look at Gerard. “Any other tattoo, ask about it, but not this one.”

“Come on,” Gerard said with a pout. “I’m really curious.”

Frank shook his head and Gerard just stuck his lower lip out even further, which looked absolutely stupid and ridiculous, and yet it was causing Frank’s resistance to waver.

“Fine!”

Frank recited the entire story with his face hidden in Gerard’s hair. “I was seventeen and wanted to get my first tattoo, but I had to do it somewhere my parents couldn’t see, so I decided my ass would work. And I thought about what it should be, since it was my first, for a long time. I knew I wanted it to be something about accepting the fact that I was gay, ‘cause I had been fighting with it for a while, but I didn’t know what. One night, I got like really fucking drunk and stoned, and I got this stupid ass idea. It’s supposed to represent the fact that no chicks will get to my ass, or something, I don’t’ even know. God, I thought it was a perfect idea until I woke up sober the next fucking day and realized it was permanent and I’m a total idiot.”

Gerard was staring down at the tattoo and biting his lip excruciatingly hard so that he did not laugh. The tattoo definitely looked like a seventeen year old high and drunk concoction. It was a cliché lipstick imprint tattoo that a lot of people got, except it was crossed out with a red symbol. Gerard could not contain it anymore, so he burst out laughing, shaking beneath Frank.

“Asshole,” Frank muttered, but there was an obvious smile to his tone even if his face was hidden.

“I’m sorry, but that is the best first tattoo story I have ever heard,” Gerard said, sounding breathless.

“Whatever,” Frank said. “I don’t allow anyone to take pictures of my ass if the tattoo shows, so you better not have.”

Gerard hummed while he quickly typed away at Frank’s phone and then finally suggested for them to move to bed. They got comfortable beneath the sheets and each of them were checking Tumblr on their phones, when suddenly Frank shot up out of Gerard’s arms and sat up straight.

“You fucker!” he yelled. “You posted it! You posted a picture! My tattoo shows, oh my God!”

Gerard just stared up at him, smirking, and so proud of his ability to have hidden his intentions so well.

“I’m gonna delete it, I can’t fucking believe you—”

Gerard interrupted him by snatching Frank’s phone out of his hands. “You can’t delete it! People already reblogged it, and plus I have some saved, so I’ll keep posting them.”

“You are the biggest asshole on this fucking planet!” Frank groaned dramatically, falling back into bed, and staring angrily up at the ceiling.

“Come on,” Gerard said, laughing. “It’s really not that bad.”

“It totally _is_ ,” Frank continued whining. “I never let _anyone_ post a picture if the tattoo showed, even if it was only a little bit of it.”

“Well, I’m your boyfriend now.” Gerard grinned. “I get privileges.”

Frank had to tighten his lips together so that he did not smile at the sound of Gerard saying he was his boyfriend.

“You’re gonna be a dead boyfriend soon. God, I hate you,” Frank said, but Gerard could see the slight upturn of his lips.

Gerard laughed and Frank glared at him as hard as he could, then went to look at the picture again. It looked amazing, and Gerard had used a nice black and white filter on it. Gerard’s arm could be seen stretching down Frank’s back, and the picture ended where his fingers ran over the top of Frank’s ass, hints of pressure seen where his hand was digging into the flesh. The only thing that ruined it was his stupid tattoo peeking out between Gerard’s thumb and forefinger. Frank sighed and settled into Gerard’s arms, tossing his phone to the other side of the bed. Gerard kissed the side of his head and they both began drifting to sleep.

“It ruins the picture,” Frank suddenly said in a soft and sleepy voice.

Gerard huffed out a small breath through his nose in a much too tired laugh. “It makes it better,” was all he responded with and they drifted back to sleep again.

The two of them woke up early, Gerard mainly because Frank was already awake and quite restless beside him. As soon as Frank saw him open his eyes, he launched into a rant, complaining about all the questions he was receiving on Tumblr about his stupid tattoo.

“Frank.” Gerard groaned. “It is not that bad.”

“It is,” Frank said. He was sitting up against the headboard and Gerard still lay on his back, neck tilted to look up at Frank. “I regret this tattoo so much, and I never regret tattoos, so that’s something. I was so drunk and—”

Gerard cut him off by shoving Frank to the side, grabbing his thigh so that he was turning Frank over. Frank protested and tried to fight Gerard off, which proved to be difficult even though Gerard had just woken up. Gerard pushed and pulled at Frank until he lay on his stomach, then Gerard lowered himself down until he was breathing right over Frank’s ass. Frank held himself completely still and quieted down.

Gerard smirked at Frank’s sudden change in stature and then bit gently at Frank’s fleshy cheek, right over the tattoo. Frank whined, barely audible, and his whole body relaxed against the bed.

“Leave it alone,” he said, sounding completely resigned.

“I really do love this tattoo, you know,” Gerard said, rubbing over it with his thumb. “I mean, it’s just so you. You would be the idiot that gets shitfaced enough to get something like this.”

Frank was about to object again, but Gerard bit at the flesh once more, causing Frank to let out another of those small whimpers. Gerard worked his tongue over it after he bit it harder than the first time. Frank’s stomach flipped at the sensation, which made it ten times more difficult to continue being angry.

“I don’t care that you love it,” Frank finally replied to what Gerard said, the two of them having been silent for too long for his comeback to matter.

“I can make you get over it,” Gerard said, using both of his hands to massage at the top of Frank’s thighs, right where the curve of his ass ended.

“How?” Frank asked, sounding breathless already because his gut was telling him he knew exactly how.

And he did know, because Gerard did what Frank expected. Gerard pulled Frank’s cheeks apart and did not hesitate to go at it, tonguing at Frank’s entrance. Frank’s body tensed and he let out a loud groan, shifting his ass up, hoping to give Gerard the access he needed.

Gerard easily brought Frank to a finish with his mouth working relentlessly over Frank’s asshole, and his hand reaching around to stroke him through it when he felt Frank shifting constantly, getting close.

That was definitely the perfect way to make Frank forget all about the tattoo, because after Gerard rutted against him until he also came, they both collapsed in bed in a blissful silence.

Gerard fell back asleep and Frank, feeling too good to be worked up about the tattoo anymore, got out of bed to wander around Gerard’s small apartment. He felt pretty nosey, so he went into Gerard’s closet and shifted through his clothes. It was probably a total invasion of privacy, but Gerard said himself that being boyfriends came with privileges, and Frank decided this was one of them.

At the bottom of the closet, shoved behind some piles of dirty laundry were boxes that Frank found were full of papers and some old clothes that Gerard probably did not wear anymore, but did not want to give up for some sentimental reason. Frank sat with his legs crossed, shifting through the mess on Gerard’s closet floor. He saw a white hood peeking out from the bottom of one box and tugged on it until it came free.

Frank stood up so he could hold the large garment out and get a good look at it. It was a pajama onesie with a skeleton imprint on it, complete with a white hood and everything. Frank could not help but laugh at it. It wasn’t as though the ensemble was small and from Gerard’s childhood. It was adult sized and judging by the worn out condition of some of the threading, definitely used a lot.

Frank put it on, giggling stupidly to himself the whole time. It was pretty baggy on him; the fabric over his legs was really scrunched up, ruining the effect of the skeleton print, and the arms were huge, hanging far past his hands. He crept silently out of the closet to grab his phone and then proceeded to take pictures of himself in the bathroom mirror.

“Revenge,” he whispered, typing away at his phone. He made sure to emphasize that this pajama belonged to _Gerard_ and that it was beyond ridiculous.

Once he felt he had created a nice enough nine items photoset, he went back into the room and hopped into bed. He kissed softly at Gerard’s back, reaching his hand around to stroke Gerard’s chest. Gerard let out a sleepy moan and Frank could feel him waking up so he pulled away.

“Why’d you stop?” Gerard grunted, rubbing at his eyes.

Frank did not answer, so Gerard rolled over to look at him and his sleepy eyes got even smaller when he scrunched his eyebrows together and stared at Frank. Frank’s tight lipped grin gave way to a loud laugh. Gerard just sat up and glared at him.

“Where’d you find that?” Gerard asked, not looking very amused.

“Somewhere,” Frank sang childishly. “I’m so not taking it off.”

“And I’m so not fucking you in that,” Gerard threatened, but Frank just fell onto his back, holding his stomach as he laughed dramatically.

Gerard rolled his eyes and heaved himself out of bed, walking sluggishly to the bathroom. Frank, still chuckling, got up and followed him there, wanting to bask in his revenge for as long as possible. Gerard turned on the water to wash his face and Frank leaned against the doorframe right behind Gerard.

“I posted a picture of me in it,” he boasted.

Gerard paused with his hands under the water and stared at Frank through the mirror. “Really?” he asked. “Why would you—”

“Oh, I made sure to say it’s yours,” Frank said with a smirk. “Payback’s a bitch, right?”

“You’re only embarrassing yourself in it, though,” Gerard pointed out blatantly, and then splashed his face with water. He did not look phased at all and that put a damper on Frank’s vengeful mood.

“Seriously? You’re not embarrassed that everyone knows you own this??”

Gerard shook his head, and Frank groaned dramatically and stomped back into the bedroom. Frank stood with his back to the bathroom and started taking the pajama off. Once it was off the top half of his body, hanging low around his hips, Gerard snuck up behind him and wrapped his arms around his waist. He pressed his lips behind Frank’s ear and let out a small laugh.

“I’m totally still mad,” Frank said, leaning back into Gerard’s embrace.

“Mm, it’s okay,” Gerard said. “You looked cute.”

“I thought it was embarrassing?” Frank asked, tilting his head as Gerard’s lips ventured down the side of his neck.

“Nah, I just didn’t wanna admit how adorable you looked.”

“God, you’re such an asshole.” Frank laughed and turned around to wrap his arms around Gerard and properly kiss him back.

The weekend passed by delightfully. Gerard and Frank did not do anything special, choosing to stay home and enjoy each other’s company, which made it all the more special for them. They did what they had done before, which was spend a lot of time on Tumblr, browse random things online, and of course indulge in each other, feeling this extra amount of passion and pleasure due to the fact that they were now a couple.

When Monday arrived, Gerard left to work in high spirits. Frank had woken up before him, something they had quickly found out was quite usual when they slept together, and prepared Gerard a mug of coffee as well as a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to take with him to work.

“I don’t know if you usually take lunch from home or if you just go out for lunch,” Frank said, looking a bit shy, which only made Gerard’s stomach flip. “But I thought you’d like a snack or something.”

“Thank you,” Gerard said, mustering up his most grateful smile while he got his shoes on. He took the mug and the plastic wrapped sandwich from Frank and gave him a long and deep kiss, holding the sandwich and coffee in one hand so that he could grab at Frank’s messy hair with the other.

“I left you the spare key on the nightstand if you wanted to go out or something,” Gerard told Frank before finally leaving. Gerard felt almost lightheaded from how content he was. He would have never guessed how much happier Frank could make him by being his boyfriend.

Gerard was quickly sucked into the busyness at work. One of the cashiers called in sick so Gerard filled her place since they could not find someone else. He was even more grateful for the sandwich Frank made him because he had to make his breaks shorter than usual and did not get himself a proper lunch.

About halfway through his day, he found a missed call from Frank and snuck away to the restroom to call him back.

“What’s up, Frank?” Gerard answered, peeking around to make sure that no one saw him.

“How many followers do you have?” Frank asked randomly.

Gerard paused. “I’m at work. This couldn’t wait?”

“No, it’s super important! How many?”

Gerard sighed and gave in. “I think like 19,100 or 200. Something like that last time I looked.”

Frank grew silent on the other end and Gerard was about to ask why Frank wanted to know, but the phone hung up before he could. Gerard rolled his eyes and got back to work. Knowing Frank, he was probably bored and up to something weird. Nevertheless, he enabled the Wi-Fi feature, logging in to the free employees network, turned his notifications on vibrate and slid the phone into his pocket, going straight back to his spot at the cash register.

Just a few minutes later, Gerard received a text from Frank that read, _“You’re going down fucker!”_ Gerard did not have the chance to reply and he did not even need to because another one followed that said, _“ha! You’ve only got a few hundred on me!”_ Gerard then realized that Frank, being the idiot he was, was trying to gain more followers than Gerard.

While there were no customers in his line, Gerard took a look at Tumblr through his phone and saw that Frank was making multiple posts asking for followers and, of course, each post was gaining a large number of notes with people promoting his blog. Wanting to join the competition, Gerard made his own post that said, “Hey guys, I’m at like 19.2k followers and if you guys can get me to 20k, you deserve some full nude shots of yours truly!” In just the few seconds he had before a customer approached his register, he saw the post gain a number of notes already.

Gerard could feel his phone vibrating in his pocket and he would smirk smugly every time because he knew it was Frank freaking out about Gerard’s promise to his followers. When he took his last short break of the day, he finally called Frank back.

“That is not fair!” Frank yelled the moment he answered the phone.

“All is fair in love and followers,” Gerard said with a laugh.

“Ugh, you are such an asshole.” Frank whined childishly and hung up.

Gerard went back to work without a worry on his mind because he knew for a fact that Frank would not be able to catch up with him based on how angry Frank sounded. When Gerard got home, Frank was there to greet him, but definitely not in the welcoming way Gerard had imagined that morning.

“Go check how many you have, asshole,” Frank said, standing with his arms crossed in front of the entrance.

“I already checked,” Gerard said, stepping past Frank to put the food he had bought in the kitchen. “I got like 500 today, so I’m at about 19,700.”

Frank’s jaw dropped and he ran over to his laptop that was on the sofa to look at his own followers. He groaned loudly in frustration and shut his laptop.

“You’re like 800 ahead of me, you fucker!”

Frank maintained his angry pout for about fifteen minutes while Gerard changed. He quickly wavered, though, when Gerard began poking at him, holding him close, and kissing at whatever skin he could reach.

“Okay, okay, I’m over it,” Frank said breathily. Gerard had trapped him against the counter, with wandering and persistent hands; there was no way Frank would resist that.

“Great.” Gerard grinned and let Frank go. “Now let’s have dinner.”

After the meal, during which Frank complained about Gerard’s lack of hair and body products and promised to buy him some even though Gerard tried to kindly decline the offer, they sat on the sofa together. Frank leaned against Gerard’s side, head resting on Gerard’s shoulder, while Gerard went through some of his tags and messages.

“Hey, we should do a Q and A together on my blog,” Gerard suggested, seeing that he was already receiving a lot of questions about Frank.

Frank agreed and so Gerard made a post about it and they immediately started receiving asks pertaining to their relationship and how things were between them now that they were a couple. When it came down to questions about their sex life, Gerard was being very cagey. One of the questions he received was about the size of Frank’s dick, and although he had answered that question long ago, his answer had completely changed. He replied to the question with, “perfect size for me.” Frank groaned when he saw the answer.

“You’re so vague!” Frank complained, snatching the laptop away from Gerard.

“What?” Gerard cocked his head. “We’re in a relationship now, I dunno, it feels weird telling them everything.”

“I guess,” Frank said absentmindedly, scrolling through Gerard’s inbox. “But I mean they already know most of our shit.”

“Yeah, but we can keep some things a secret just for us, you know?”

Frank shrugged and nodded, even though he didn’t fully understand where Gerard was coming from. It all felt normal to him, but since it was Gerard’s blog, he abided by his rules and did not go into details when he gave his answers.

“Someone submitted a photo they edited of you,” Frank said, typing something already. He gave Gerard the laptop before he published it.

“Really, Frank?” Gerard laughed.

The person had submitted the photo with the caption, “It was really hard choosing a pic to edit because you look good in pretty much every single one.” Frank had added his own reply to that caption, writing, “thanks but he’s mine now haha fuckers xo F.”

Frank smiled innocently and Gerard rolled his eyes, posting it as it was. He simply added, _#this is great thank you xo G_ , in the tags just to make sure his smug boyfriend did not cover up his appreciation.

Frank started getting restless then as Gerard answered a few more questions. He nuzzled his forehead against Gerard’s neck at first, but got no attention that way, so he started nibbling on Gerard’s ear, which definitely succeeded in getting Gerard’s focus to be on him. Gerard stilled and waited for Frank’s next move. Frank slid his hand down to Gerard’s hip, pulling his shirt up enough to get his hands on some skin.

“Wait, wait,” Gerard said, Frank’s point getting across to him. “Lemme tell them the Q and A is done.”

Frank took matters into his own hands and snatched the laptop from Gerard. He wrote: “Ok guys Gerard’s gonna fuck me now. Later. xo F.” He posted it and closed the laptop before Gerard could protest.

“Frank!” Gerard whined.

“If you said you’re leaving, I think they would have gotten the point anyway,” Frank said, laughing. He got up and pulled Gerard with him, leading him to the bedroom. It would not take long at all for him to make Gerard get over Frank’s bluntness.

**

“Sorry I can’t come with you,” Gerard said, laying on his stomach at the foot of the bed so he could see Frank through the bathroom door.

“It’s cool, really,” Frank responded. “I can’t have you going to work dead tired. I’ll find someone to go with me.”

“You can take my car if you want,” Gerard offered, hoping to compensate. “So you don’t have to worry about a ride or whatever.”

Frank finished covering his head in a large amount of hairspray and then left the bathroom. He bent over to give Gerard a quick peck on the lips.

“Thank you,” he said with a smile and then stood back up, glancing at his phone. “Austin said he can make it.”

“From Tumblr?” Gerard asked.

Frank nodded absentmindedly, typing away at his phone. Gerard did not know Austin personally, but he was quite popular on Tumblr and had hooked up with Frank a few times in the past. Gerard’s stomach stirred in an unfamiliar way at the thought. He sat up and pulled Frank in by his hips.

Frank smiled again, holding onto Gerard’s shoulders for balance. He bent down to kiss Gerard, unable to resist with the way Gerard was sliding his index fingers along the hem of Frank’s jeans.

“You’re gonna make me late,” Frank mumbled against Gerard’s lips and pulled back.

“Okay, fine.” Gerard sighed. “Take care of my car.”

“And your boyfriend?” Frank raised an eyebrow.

“Eh, bring him back with minimal damage,” Gerard joked, hoping to cover up the fact that he was slightly bothered by Frank going with Austin.

Frank laughed and smacked his shoulder. He gave Gerard one last goodbye kiss and then he was gone. Gerard sat on the bed for a few moments, breathing steadily through the troubled way he was feeling. It was strange because he never thought he would be the jealous type, but this was the first time Frank would be hanging out with one of his hook-up friends ever since he and Gerard got together. Gerard did not want to think that Frank would ever be one to cheat, yet he could not stop fretting the entire night.

Gerard was supposed to sleep – that was the reason he stayed home instead of accompanying Frank. He lay in bed for quite a while until he gave up, knowing his attempts would get him nowhere. Gerard wondered if Frank would post anything, so he checked his blog. There was nothing. Then, he checked Austin’s blog. Austin had posted a picture about half an hour ago. He had one arm around Frank, the other holding a beer, and his forehead pressed against Frank’s temple, a huge grin on both their faces. Frank’s hand was outstretched since he was the one taking the photo, one eye slightly shut. The stage was just barely visible behind their backs.

Gerard’s stomach dropped and he exited the blog right away. He bitterly thought about the fact that the two of them were not even paying attention to the show so there was no point in them going.

Hooking up was what he and Frank always did, all they were about, so what if Frank was not ready to kick the old habit? What if he even thought that Gerard would not mind because it was basically part of who they were? Gerard had left Austin’s blog, but kept returning to it over and over again, basically torturing himself with the sickly feeling he had every time he looked at the photo.

Frank finally returned. As soon as Gerard heard the front door opening, he settled himself beneath the sheets, pretending he was asleep and not up all night fretting over his new boyfriend. He could not keep up the act for long because when he heard Frank stumbling into the room clumsily, he opened his eyes, too tempted by the chance to survey Frank closely.

“Hey loser, why are you still awake?” Frank asked. He was only slightly drunk.

“I dunno,” Gerard answered lifelessly. “I couldn’t sleep.”

Frank groaned and collapsed onto the bed, shaking Gerard with the impact. Gerard had his back to his barely tipsy boyfriend. “Oh, man, if we knew you were gonna be up, you could’ve came with me! It was so awesome.”

“If you actually wanted me there,” Gerard mumbled so quietly he could hardly hear himself.

“Hm, what?”

“Nothing,” Gerard answered. “I think I’m gonna sleep now.”

“Okay, I’m gonna go shower,” he announced, standing up and out of bed. “I stink like sweat, man, it’s awesome!”

Gerard hummed in response, shutting his eyes when Frank walked into his line of sight, about to head over to the bathroom. Gerard could hear the sound of clothes being shed. Suddenly, there were gentle fingers raking through his hair, causing him to open his eyes. Frank had bent over to face him properly, and when Gerard’s eyes met his, he gave him a long kiss, a hint of a small smile playing on Frank’s lips the entire time.

“Good night,” Frank said when he pulled back, a huge smile on his face.

Gerard smiled back, despite all the worries that had been nagging at him for the past few hours. When Frank finally went into the bathroom, Gerard took the time to convince himself that Frank did absolutely nothing with Austin that he should not have done. The agitating feeling in his stomach finally died down and he was able to fall asleep before Frank returned from his shower.

**

They woke up very early the next morning since Gerard had to drop Frank off at the train station before he left to work. Frank complained for a bit about how early it was and how tired it left him, but once he had gotten dressed, fixed his hair, and had a mug of coffee, he was in a much better mood and started recalling the amazing night he had to Gerard.

Gerard was truly interested and happy to see how excited Frank was, but he could not deny that he had to fake a smile and consciously evaluate how he responded every time Frank mentioned Austin.

“I have to hang out with my parents this weekend,” Frank said just before boarding his train. He was tucked into Gerard’s side, arms wrapped tightly around Gerard’s waist. “But we’ll plan another visit really soon.”

“Definitely,” Gerard confirmed with a nod. He ducked his head down to get one last kiss before Frank had to leave.

Once Frank was gone and Gerard was off to work, all the jealous thoughts he had fought off were back to nagging him relentlessly. They made it extremely difficult to keep his focus fully on his job, but no matter what he did, he could not shake them off. During his lunch break, he went onto Tumblr, hoping he could properly distract himself.

Frank had posted a picture and tagged Gerard in it. The picture was of Gerard’s back, through the dirty window of the train Frank had been on earlier. Frank had written, “goodbyes are such a dick,” beneath the photo, tagging it with _#seriously though my parents suck_ and _#soon tho :*_.

Forgetting about Austin was so easy at that moment. The very simple but very endearing gesture of making that post left Gerard in high spirits, barely able to tame the grin on his face. He had no reason to be jealous. Frank was Gerard’s boyfriend, not Austin’s, and Frank made that post about Gerard, not Austin, so Gerard had to get over the pointless bitterness.

**

Over the weekend, Gerard was receiving constant text messages from Frank consisting of his complaints of boredom and how he would have preferred to be spending time with Gerard. Gerard felt the same way; the last few weekends had been amazing with Frank’s company.

Later at night, before taking a shower, Gerard was on Tumblr and his eyes widened when he saw that his follower count had hit 20,000. He could not believe that he had gained so many already. He remembered that he had promised his followers nudes if he reached that number, so he made a text post that said, “Thank you guys so much! I finally 20k so as promised, pics coming up soon ;) xo”.

Once he was in the shower, Gerard stroked himself slowly, shutting his eyes and imagining Frank’s hands caressing him as the warm water ran down his back. He smirked a bit at the thought of Frank teasing him, bringing him so close to a finish, and stopping just to watch him writhe desperately. Gerard had to force his mind from wandering and took his hand off his dick, shutting the water off, and stepping out. He went to the full body mirror that hung on the back of his bathroom door, and took pictures of himself like that.

Droplets of water were still falling from the ends of his hair, running slowly down the planes of his body. He threw his head back in a few of the photos he took, mouth hanging open, and one hand on his dick, really giving his followers a show. After he took a sufficient amount of shots that he could choose from, he left his phone on the counter and finished jerking off, so desperate to actually have Frank there with him, guiding him to a finish.

Gerard cleaned himself off and got dressed, then finally chose two of the pictures he had taken to post to Tumblr. His followers had already been anticipating the nudes, so his activity feed was filled with people liking and reblogging the photos immediately. He was smiling the entire time, knowing that Frank would be so mad upon realizing that Gerard actually hit his goal of 20,000.

After Gerard answered a few questions – most of them consisted of keyboard smashes and exclamations written in all caps – Frank finally called him.

“Hello?” Gerard answered slowly, hoping his smug smile was not too obvious in his voice.

“Seriously, Gerard?” Frank asked, sounding pissed off. “What the fuck is that?”

“Don’t be so bitter about not winning,” Gerard teased, settling comfortably onto his back on the bed, leaving his laptop next to him. “Maybe you can catch up eventually.”

“I don’t care about the followers. What the fuck did you just post?”

Gerard was taken aback. The angry tone Frank had was not the one he usually used when they argued playfully. Gerard actually glanced at his laptop screen, wondering if he had done or said something that would actually bother Frank.

“Uh… I’m a bit lost,” Gerard confessed. “Is this about the pictures? They’re pictures of myself, like the ones I always—”

“No, Gerard, this is way more than you usually share,” Frank cut him off.

Gerard’s eyebrows furrowed. He was beyond confused about Frank reacting the way he was. There was never problem about what they chose to post on their blogs.

“I promised my followers nude pics,” he explained simply. “So why are you surprised?”

“I didn’t think you’d actually do it!” Frank exclaimed on the other end of the phone. “Seriously?? You’ve never shown that much.”

“Frank, honestly, I don’t…”

“You’re showing everything,” Frank went on as though Gerard had not even attempted to speak. “Didn’t you think maybe I wouldn’t be okay with this?”

Gerard’s mouth hung open in complete shock. “I didn’t realize I had to, like, ask you about stuff before I post them.”

“No, but as your boyfriend, I would think my feelings matter.”

Gerard chose not to respond, taking a minute to breathe and calm himself down. A couple of pictures on Tumblr were definitely not worth having a fight over. He hoped Frank would calm down as well.

“I think this is blowing up way more than it needs to be,” Gerard said.

“Oh of course, I’m being dramatic, that’s great.” Frank scoffed.

“I didn’t say that!” Gerard scrubbed a hand over his face. “Come on, you’re usually way more open than me about stuff anyways, so—”

“This is different,” Frank cut him off again, and Gerard was starting to get agitated by Frank not letting him get a word in. “This is way different than that and you know it.”

“Okay, seriously, it isn’t that big of a deal.” Gerard was losing his patience. “I’m blogging the same way I always have since before we even met. A couple nude pictures are not _that_ different.”

“But you _have_ a boyfriend now, and what I think matters! I mean, you wouldn’t go fuck someone like you used to, right?”

“This is just a picture! I didn’t fuck anyone!” Gerard exclaimed, sitting up and running a frustrated hand through his hair.

“That’s not what I meant, God, I just mean you should respect what I think.”

“Hey, I wasn’t totally okay with you going out with Austin, but I didn’t say shit,” Gerard confessed, unable to contain all the feelings he had bottled up now that Frank was freely unleashing his own.

Frank paused for a moment. “You weren’t okay with… wait, what? Why? What’d you think I was gonna fuck him?”

“That doesn’t matter,” Gerard said with a sigh. “Point is I didn’t say shit ‘cause that’s not my place.”

“Oh, so it isn’t my place to tell you I don’t want thousands of people seeing my boyfriend’s _dick_ , right? And it’s not my place to tell you that something is bothering me? Then where the fuck is my place?”

“Jesus, okay, _now_ you’re being dramatic,” Gerard said, exasperated. “I got over my stupid jealousy ‘cause I trusted you, so why can’t you?”

Frank made a few sounds, as if he was getting ready to speak, but cutting himself off short. “I’m not gonna feel the same way about stuff, okay?” he finally spoke. “I’m not gonna think like you. So some stuff might bother me more than you think. At least try to care about that.”

There was a long moment of silence from both ends, save for the occasional sigh that was heard through the static of the phone’s receiver.

“I’m not taking the pictures down, Frank, I don’t know what you want.” Gerard felt the need to hold his place, adamant to prove that he had done absolutely nothing wrong.

Frank let out one last breath, sounding stoic when he said, “You know what, fine, don’t take it down. Whatever. I’m gonna go. Bye.”

When Frank hung up without waiting for a response, Gerard just stared at his phone in shock. He would have never imagined that Frank would react the way he did; he never thought that jealousy would be an issue between the two of them, especially considering the way that they had met.

Gerard had no idea what he was supposed to do, or how he was supposed to handle the situation, so he did nothing. Waiting things out seemed like the best option, except that it did not really get him anywhere. There was no word from Frank for the rest of the night, as well as the entirety of the following day. Gerard shamelessly kept an eye on Frank’s blog.

Frank had not been very active since their argument. He had not made any new posts or reblogged anything, other than answering an occasional random question. Gerard had no idea what to make of any of that or if he was supposed to do anything. He lay in bed, slouched with the laptop resting on his stomach. He scrubbed his hand over his face and refreshed Frank’s blog, telling himself it would be the last time that night.

Frank had actually reblogged something; it was a screenshot someone had posted of a tweet that read: “You need to know your place in someone’s life before you start expecting too much and set yourself up to be hurt.” Frank had tagged the post with, _#wow how relevant_. That was Gerard’s cracking point. All he had heard from Frank the night before was anger, but seeing that post showed him that Frank was hurt above all else.

Gerard went to his own blog and deleted the original post that contained his nude photos. He knew it made absolutely no difference because it would still continue circulating on Tumblr due to all the people that reblogged it, but he hoped it would communicate something to Frank.

He then sent Frank an ask that said, “I know it pretty much makes no difference, but I deleted it.” Just about a minute after he hit send, his phone rang. It was Frank of course.

“You didn’t have to delete it,” Frank immediately said when Gerard answered. His tone was resigned, a stark contrast to the fury behind his words the previous night.

“No, I wanted to. I know it’s still on every blog that reblogged it, and there’s, like, a lot, and they’re probably gonna keep reblogging it…” Gerard paused, realizing even more how useless it was for him to delete the post. “I just wanted to delete it. It’s the thought that counts, you know? And I wanted you to see that I actually cared.”

“I just…” Frank trailed off for a moment and Gerard could have sworn he detected a smile in his tone, or so he hoped. “That’s kind of all I wanted – I mean not for you to delete it, but just to feel like you cared? It just felt like you didn’t yesterday.”

Gerard could tell that Frank was definitely smiling then, which was comforting. “I know,” Gerard said with a sigh. “And I do, a lot, so I wanted you to know that.”

There was a moment of silence then, and it felt incredibly tense and awkward.

“Are we, uh, okay?” Gerard asked. “We’re good, right?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Frank quickly answered, letting out a long breath. “I’m just sorry for how I reacted. I should have taken it easier.”

“Ah it’s okay,” Gerard said, shrugging even though Frank wasn’t there to see. “We both overreacted a little, it happens.”

“You should have told me how you felt about Austin. I wouldn’t have gone if I knew it was bothering you.”

Gerard smiled at the offer. “I didn’t wanna do that. I shouldn’t do that, you know? I need to trust you.”

“So you know nothing happened with him, right?” Frank asked, wanting to confirm that they were back on level ground. “You believe that?”

“Yeah.” Gerard shook his head at himself. Doubting Frank’s loyalty seemed so ridiculous in hindsight.

“Good, ‘cause obviously I brag about you to everyone, so no one’s gonna try and make a move in the middle of me swooning over my boyfriend. It’s kind of a turn off.”

Gerard laughed loudly, hand twitching to smack Frank as though he was there. Gerard wished he was. They talked about that, confirming that they would visit each other again as soon as Frank was done with his parental bonding.

The next morning, Gerard was woken up by his phone ringing next to him since he had fallen asleep right after hanging up with Frank. Gerard groaned because it was still too early for him to be up, but answered anyways.

“Hello?” he answered croakily.

“You are such an asshole!” Frank yelled into his ear. Gerard’s immediate thought was that no one should be as energetic as Frank sounded at this time. His second thought, after his mind actually woke up a bit more, was coated with fear.

“Uh, what happened?” Gerard asked tentatively, sitting up in bed. He and Frank had been on good terms the night before, so he was nervous to hear him yelling again.

“I hate that picture you posted of my ass with my tattoo on full fucking view!” Frank continued yelling.

“I thought you were over that already?” Gerard asked, laughing and feeling very relieved. He did not want to have another argument with Frank; the first one they had was more than enough for him.

“I just realized it has the most fucking notes out of all my pictures!” Frank exclaimed. “I mean come the fuck on!”

Gerard shook his head and rubbed his eye absentmindedly. “Aw come on, Frankie, that means everyone loves it,” Gerard said, not really trying that hard to comfort Frank since he had no regrets about posting that picture.

“That’s the problem!” Frank groaned. “Everyone loves it, so everyone has _seen_ it!”

“For the love of – you seriously woke me up for this?” Gerard groaned and rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, suffer with me, asshole.”

As tired and sleepy as Gerard was, he lay on his back and smiled, contentedly listening to Frank grumbling about all the other pictures he had that deserved the success. More than anything, Gerard was glad that he and Frank were back to normal. It had only been a day of them not talking, but it felt like so much longer when he looked back on it.

**

A week after they resolved their problems, Gerard stood in the cold, waiting for Frank’s train to arrive. They had not made any plans yet, but Frank called Gerard so suddenly saying that he needed to crash at Gerard’s place for a while. Frank had gotten into an argument with his parents and since they paid the rent for his apartment, he did not feel right staying there. Gerard, of course, agreed. He stood with his hands clutched together in the pocket of his hoodie and his hood pulled over his head.

When Frank finally arrived, he strolled towards Gerard with a huge backpack on his back and two suitcases rolling behind him.

“Really?” Gerard raised his eyebrow once Frank was in earshot. “You really need all of that?”

“I need a lot of stuff, I don’t know how long I’m staying,” Frank said with a shrug.

Gerard rolled his eyes and took one of the suitcases for Frank, placing a kiss on his temple, and wrapping an arm around him. Gerard could already tell that Frank was feeling down and the moment they were in the car and the heater was warming them up properly, he launched into a rant about his parents.

“I just don’t understand them sometimes.” Frank sighed. They were almost at Gerard’s place, and Gerard sat there, holding Frank’s hand, and nodding and humming when appropriate. “They know the only reason I don’t wanna go to school is because there’s nothing I actually wanna _do_ , and I’m not gonna waste my time and their money. They’re gonna pay every fucking cent, and if they wanna be supportive, why not just help me out with my art? I know I don’t make much, but I like it. Like, yeah good for you, you’re both attorneys, but I don’t want a fucking job like that.”

Frank grunted then, like he had concluded his speech and Gerard rubbed his thumb over the back of his hand. “You guys always argue about this,” Gerard finally offered his opinion on the matter. “They’re just still convinced they can change your mind, but I guarantee that eventually they’ll just give up on it and back you up with whatever you wanna do.”

“I hope that’s soon,” Frank mumbled, hand tightening around Gerard’s. Gerard admired Frank’s passion for his talents, almost as much as he did Frank’s actual work. He dabbled in many mediums and styles, but focused mainly on surrealist paintings. Occasionally, he put them on sale on sites like Etsy, but only if he could keep his followers on Tumblr from tracing them back to him. He never wanted to feel like his sales were a product of his fame as a blogger. It wasn’t easy to get attention this way, though, so he didn’t exactly have a constant income because of it.

When they arrived at Gerard’s apartment, Gerard was expecting them to go straight to sleep since it was quite late. Frank, though, needed more comforting that was not in the form of ranting endlessly. He was all over Gerard as soon as the door was shut, arms tight around him, mouth hot and desperate on Gerard’s, groans of want turning into whimpers of need. They made their way to the bedroom, Frank unsuccessfully trying to rid of them of their clothes on the way there. Gerard had to take the lead on that, his head not clouded by anger the way Frank’s was.

Gerard was also expecting Frank to want to top that night considering the rage that was radiating off of him. Once again, Frank defied his expectations when he flipped them over so that Gerard was on top of him and hotly whispered, “I need you to fuck me,” against Gerard’s neck.

It was over rather quickly, and Frank fell asleep in the middle of Gerard cleaning him off, so Gerard considered it a success.

When the morning came, Gerard was awake before Frank, which had never happened before. He got dressed quickly and had to leave without his coffee because he had overslept a few minutes. Leaving Frank with a text and a spare key, he was off to work.

Frank woke up a couple hours later, and spent the day alternating between blogging and cleaning. There was not much to clean, but he had scrubbed the countertops in the kitchen so many times that they wouldn’t need to be cleaned again for a few years. He also passed some time by sending Gerard quite a few text messages saying, _“I’m bored save me,_ ” but unfortunately, Gerard did not save him.

Gerard finally got home at night and Frank jumped to the door, throwing his arms around Gerard’s neck and sighing dramatically.

“I’ve been so bored!” he said with a groan, his head thrown back.

“Sorry.” Gerard laughed, but had to unwind Frank’s arms from around him and shut the door. “But you might be bored for a couple more hours.”

“What? Why?” Frank whined, following Gerard who rushed to his bedroom and started changing out of his work clothes.

“I forgot that I promised to meet up with Brian today,” Gerard said, clumsily trying to get his pants off with his shoes still on.

Frank leaned against the doorframe and raised an eyebrow. “Who’s Brian?”

“Oh you don’t know him? He’s on Tumblr. He helped me out a lot with my blog when I first started out, and I would sometimes help him with Photoshop since he’s a photographer but doesn’t do much with editing.” Gerard paused, now in a fresh pair of jeans, and looked around for a shirt. “Where is the shirt I was wearing? Fuck. And, yeah, he wants me to teach him some basic stuff so he can start doing shit on his own. Ah, there it is!”

Gerard crossed the room and picked up a button down shirt with stripes that Frank had seen him wear much too often to be considered sanitary.

“You guys never heard of online tutorials?” Frank suggested, trying to keep the suspicion out of his voice.

“He used to do that and I told him whatever he was learning was crap,” Gerard said. “I think he needs like hands-on teaching. Shit, I hope he hasn’t left already.”

“Just call him,” Frank said with a shrug. Gerard did not notice the monotonous way with which he was speaking.

“His phone is messed up.” Gerard finally got his shirt buttoned down. “I’ll message him on Tumblr, but he probably won’t even get it. Sorry I have to leave already, I’ll totally make it up to you when I’m home.”

Gerard went to Frank and gave him a quick kiss, giving him a smile when he pulled away that Frank did not return. Gerard didn’t notice, though, because he was already rushing out of the house. Frank stood there for a few seconds after Gerard left, rolling his thoughts around in his head. Gerard’s sudden meeting with Brian, who had never been mentioned previously, sounded way too suspicious. Not only had Gerard never talked about Brian, but it was the first time since he and Frank started dating that Gerard was meeting up with one of his Tumblr friends.

Frank shook his doubts away, knowing that no good would come out of them, and went onto his laptop to hopefully distract himself. Just a minute into scrolling through his dashboard, Frank had a thought. He wondered if Gerard stayed logged in on Tumblr on his own laptop. Frank decided to check. He was actually expecting Gerard to be signed out, but he wasn’t, so Frank went straight to his inbox.

Frank browsed through Gerard’s messages, but saw none from Brian, which was strange since Gerard had most likely been using Tumblr to communicate with him. Frank realized, after another minute of searching, that the asks had probably been coming in from Brian’s end, and so when Gerard answered, they ended up in Brian’s inbox. Frank knew there had to be something, though, so he kept going even further into Gerard’s messages.

Just when he was about to give up, Frank _finally_ saw a message from Brian. There was one that Gerard had not answered and it read: _“had an amazing night. You are amazing.”_ Another, a few more messages down, was a message that Gerard had sent and Brian answered.

Gerard had said, _“would you finally say im the best you ever had? cause by the way you sounded, id say i was.”_

Brian had replied, _“I hate to admit it because you’re a cocky diva, but yeah… definitely one of the best.”_

Frank’s heart dropped. The messages were from months ago, so Frank and Gerard had not started dating, but it still left a sick feeling in Frank’s stomach. Gerard had made it seem as though his relationship with Brian was purely about Photoshop and photography, not that they had actually hooked up a few times. If it happened before, what would stop Gerard from letting it happen now?

Frank took a deep breath, willing himself to calm down and went back to the top of Gerard’s inbox, refreshing it one last time. There was a new message from Brian, received just about half an hour ago that read: _“I’m still here no worries. See you in a bit babe x”_.

Frank’s mouth hung open. That message did not seem as friendly as Frank would have hoped with his and Gerard’s relationship being put into place. Frank shut Gerard’s laptop, put it back into its place, and hoped that deafening himself with music would help. He should not have been jumping to conclusions, and he knew it, but Gerard’s sudden plans with Brian had not sat right with Frank from the beginning, and those messages had not aided in taming his uneasiness.

Frank lay on the sofa, contemplating what he should do and how he should confront Gerard. He had not gotten very far into planning, so when he heard the doorknob rattling, he acted purely on impulse.

Frank sat up and the moment Gerard stepped through the door, Frank looked him in the eyes and asked, “Did you have sex with him?”

Gerard had been smiling upon seeing Frank, but it was replaced with a confused frown when he heard Frank’s question.

“I… what?” Gerard slowly shut the door and stood there awkwardly, unsure of where this sudden accusation was coming from.

“I saw your messages with him,” Frank said, standing up. He had his hands balled into fists at his sides. “With Brian. You don’t just help the guy with Photoshop. Every time you guys meet it’s to fuck.”

“What were you doing looking through my messages?” was Gerard’s instant question.

“That’s kind of beside the point,” Frank spat angrily. “Did you fuck him or not?”

“That’s not beside the point, that _is_ the point!” Gerard threw his hands up. “Obviously I didn’t fuck him, but you had to look through my messages to check?”

“Well you didn’t mention that you guys used to fuck when this random meeting came up,” Frank said casually, crossing his arms. “So how would I have even known?”

Gerard’s mouth dropped open and he stared incredulously at Frank, hoping this was all some joke. He said, “You can’t be serious.”

Frank shrugged, lips in a tight line and expression unnervingly neutral.

“Am I supposed to introduce people like that?” Gerard scoffed. “Like hey I fucked this guy once, but this guy I fucked twice, oh but this one I lost count. Does that seriously matter here?”

“Don’t I have the right to know shit like that?”

“Oh my God. If you ask me, I’ll tell you! Our sex lives aren’t exactly a secret, are they? Go on my blog and you’ll literally see every guy I’ve ever fucked!”

Frank still had his arms crossed defensively, but wasn’t looking straight at Gerard while he spoke. His eyes wandered, making it seem as though he was uninterested in what Gerard had to say. This made Gerard’s temper rise.

“But I guess that’s not enough.” Gerard shook his head and then pulled his phone out of his pocket. He threw it onto the sofa. “Look through my messages on there, too, if you wanna double check that I’m not cheating on you.”

Frank shook his head. “I don’t want that. I want you to just tell me the truth.”

“I am, but you’re not fucking taking it,” Gerard pressed. He felt as though there was some barrier preventing his words from fully reaching Frank. “You wanna hear me say that I fucked him, even though I didn’t. You’re fucking convinced and you won’t listen to what I have to say, so whatever. I’m not gonna sit here trying to prove shit to you after you invaded my privacy like that.”

Gerard turned to storm off into his room and Frank let out a loud, frustrated groan. Gerard slammed the door shut behind him and ignored the loud yell of, “Fuck you, Gerard!”

Days passed that consisted of a heavy amount of tension and awkwardness. They had not spoken to each other at all. Gerard could not kick Frank out of his apartment, no matter how angry he was, but he would not be the first to speak. He had done nothing wrong and so he would be holding his ground.

The act of sharing a small apartment without interacting was difficult. Gerard spent most of his time in his room, while Frank camped out in the living room. Their paths only crossed in the kitchen and when Frank had to use the bathroom since it was located in Gerard’s room. Passing by each other, even if for only a second, was almost painful. There they were, practically living together for a few days, and yet they could not speak a single word to one another. They had become less than strangers under the same roof. Even their followers knew there was something going on because they had not posted any pictures together and did not interact online at all. They each ignored every message that inquired if everything was okay, even those that they got from friends, which really said more than any actual answer could have.

On a Monday night, after four excruciating days of ignoring each other, they finally spoke. Neither of them had planned it. Frank was in the kitchen, attempting to cook some chicken for dinner because he was tired of the microwavable food he had been eating. He had poured some cooking oil onto a pan, and while he tried to screw the cap back onto the bottle, it slipped out of his grip and spilled onto the floor.

“Fuck,” he hissed, quickly bending over to stop the rest of the oil from glugging out onto the floor. The wooden floor was shining with the thick liquid that covered it. Frank went searching for something to clean with and slipped. He fell hard onto his ass, catching himself with his elbow, which panged with the impact. “Fucking _fuck_!”

He crawled on his knees to the counter, afraid to stand up because he would most likely fall again. There were not many towels in the drawers for him to clean up the mess, so he did what he could. The floor was still greasy and he looked around for a mop, but could not see one. He sat there on his knees, thinking through what he could do that did not involve speaking to Gerard. Once he realized there was no alternative, he carefully got to his feet and slowly made his way to Gerard’s bedroom.

The door was shut, but not locked, so Frank walked in. He found Gerard laying on his bed, laptop on his stomach, and headphones in his ears. He saw Frank and pulled one of his headphones out, surprised that Frank was in the room, actually looking at him.

Gerard noticed that the side of Frank’s shirt was stained with something, making it nearly transparent. His legs, from the knee down, were also stained. Gerard tried not to let his eyes linger on his arm that was shining with what looked like oil.

“Um, where’s your mop?” Frank mumbled quietly.

“The balcony,” Gerard answered slowly.

“Okay,” Frank said with a nod and then carefully turned on his heels to leave.

Gerard stared at the spot where Frank had stood for a bit before he got up to see what was going on. Frank was walking back from the balcony with the mop and its bucket in hand, and Gerard was walking into the kitchen.

“Wait, wait!” Frank called out.

Gerard tried to stop and turn, but his feet slid out of his control on the slippery wooden floor. He flailed uncoordinatedly for a moment, trying to save himself from a fall, but ended up on his ass, the pain shooting up his spine.

“Um… there’s oil everywhere,” Frank said not so helpfully, staring guiltily at Gerard.

“Fuck, my ass hurts,” Gerard whined, trying to get back up without falling again.

Frank set the mop down and put his hand out to help Gerard, bracing himself on the counter with the other hand so he didn’t send them both back to the floor. Gerard took his hand and got himself up, rubbing at his backside that would surely be bruised the next day.

Frank proceeded to clean up the mess he made. Gerard leaned against the wall, watching. Frank poured a small amount of lemon scented cleaning product into a cup, mixed it with water, and then dribbled some onto the floor, section by section as he cleaned from the inside of the kitchen out. He covered every single area with focused precision.

Frank left the cup on the counter and held the mop, looking around for any spot he may have missed. He looked at the nearly empty cooking oil and then at Gerard, who was looking at the clean floors with a very blank expression.

“Sorry for wasting it,” Frank said. Gerard looked up at him questioningly and Frank pointed at the cooking oil.

“Oh, it’s… fine.”

Frank nodded and turned towards the bedroom with the mop.

“Where are you taking it?” Gerard asked.

“To wash it in the bathtub,” Frank answered over his shoulder.

“Why not in the sink? I wash it there.”

“Because that’s for dishes,” Frank answered simply. “Gross.”

Gerard stood there, shaking his head at Frank’s strange desire for everything to be perfect and orderly. Frank walked back out a while later, taking the bucket with the mop out to the balcony so it could dry.

“I give up on making food,” Frank stated when he returned, standing at the edge of the kitchen with his hands on his hips.

Gerard raised his eyebrow. “Are we talking now?”

Frank blinked, as though he remembered then that he was supposed to be ignoring Gerard. With just a few statements exchanged between them, he had nearly forgotten that they were on no speaking terms.

“I dunno,” Frank said with a shrug, looking at the kitchen and not Gerard. “Are we?”

“Well do you still think I fucked Brian?”

Frank turned to look at Gerard, hands tucked into his pockets now. “Well… did you?”

Gerard’s eyes widened and he cocked his head to the side, stunned by the fact that Frank was _still_ asking him. Frank waited for an answer.

“No, not since we started dating,” Gerard answered, opting for a direct and calm response rather than hashing out another argument.

“Is it normal for guys to call you babe even if there’s nothing between you?” Frank countered.

Gerard scoffed. “Yeah, actually it is. Seriously, I’m pretty sure guys call you babe and other things. Do you fuck them and I’m not aware or something?”

Frank tilted his head back, looking offended. “Don’t turn this on me.”

“I’m not turning anything,” Gerard said with a sigh. “I’m just saying you think I’m fucking whoever calls me babe, but are you?”

“No, obviously.” Frank shrugged, turning his attention back to the kitchen.

“Well, point made,” Gerard concluded, crossing his arms and waiting. He had no idea what he was waiting for as they stood there in complete silence. Upon realizing that Frank was not planning on saying anything more, Gerard released a defeated sigh. “Frank… I really don’t wanna ignore each other anymore, especially while you’re staying here with me. We’re wasting so much time we could spend together.”

Frank crossed his arms, looking defensive and ready to argue until he saw the desperate look on Gerard’s face. His stubbornness faltered and he dropped his arms.

“You can’t blame me, okay? For reacting the way I did.”

“You’re supposed to trust me, so I have the right to be mad.” Gerard wanted them to finally make up, but that did not mean that he would pretend as though nothing happened.

There was a very short glimmer of persistence on Frank’s face. Even he was tired of arguing. “I know,” he said, puffing out a frustrated breath. “Fuck, I’m sorry for doing that, looking through your messages, but I mean you can’t blame me for being jealous, right? You get it, right?”

With the simple utterance of an apology, Gerard was stepping towards Frank, placing a hand on his arm and giving him a small smile.

“Of course I get the jealousy,” Gerard said. “It’s natural. Look, I know we both have these blogs and used to do shit because of them, okay? But… there’s a line between jealousy and just not trusting. We need to have that line.”

Frank nodded quickly, ready to put their problems behind them. “You’re right, we both need to get that.”

“And that means privacy. We need to trust enough to give each other privacy.”

Frank sighed, looking guilty as he reflected over what he did. “I’m sorry for looking through your messages like that. It was stupid.”

“I forgive you, you idiot,” Gerard said, grinning.

They both felt so relieved to finally be speaking without the thick tension between them. Gerard pulled Frank into a hug, both of them relaxing and sinking into it. Gerard ran his hand up and down Frank’s arm, still slicked with oil.

“You know,” Gerard mumbled into Frank’s hair, “the oil on your skin is really what made me crack.”

Frank laughed into Gerard’s neck, squeezing him tighter. “Oh, so it wasn’t just ‘cause you missed me, huh?” He pinched Gerard’s ass and pulled back from the hug, smirking. “You just want me for my body?”

“Basically.” Gerard bit his bottom lip, fingers already creeping past the hem of Frank’s shirt, tickling the skin of his hips. Frank had missed his touch so much.

**

Four weeks had passed since that fight. Gerard and Frank had grown closer together. Frank spent a lot of his time at Gerard’s apartment. A lot of his essentials remained there, extra clothes included, just in case he visited spontaneously and did not have time to worry about packing. Having grown closer, and considering the circumstances of their argument four weeks ago, one would think that they were still in the honeymoon phase of their relationship. That argument, however, had simply been the beginning to an onslaught of very similar fights.

Any disagreement between them would begin with something being posted on their blog, or something in the past coming back up on their dashboards, leading to doubts and accusations being thrown at one another. It was scary to them both how much time they spent ignoring each other as opposed to actually getting along. Although Frank visited often, his visits were brief for fear of another fight being incited during his stay. Not many of their friends, acquaintances, or followers knew of the strife between them. If they did, they may wonder why the two had not broken up yet. Frank and Gerard wondered this themselves quite often, but were too scared to even explore the idea because no matter their differences, they cared far too much to let go.

It was in late March and they were in the state of ignoring each other. Their most recent quarrel was the biggest yet. What usually took a day to talk out and forgive was taking days. A friend of Gerard’s who he had hooked up with so many months ago had recently posted pictures of Gerard straddling him. And of course, Frank lost it, immediately assuming that the photos had been taken more recently than Gerard was insisting they were. Both of them were losing a great deal of sleep, up every night, waiting for things to hit the point where they got better again.

Gerard felt so guilty. He was absolutely telling the truth about when the photos were taken, but the guilt nagging him was about the way he and Frank had ended their conversation the last time they spoke.

_“I’m so sick and tired of having to repeat shit to you and if you don’t wanna believe me, fine!” Gerard had yelled angrily._

_“Oh, wow, so you’re sick and tired of me? That’s just great, Gerard.”_

_Gerard had groaned at that. He obviously had not meant it that way, but his patience for uselessly explaining himself to Frank was long gone._

_“Yes, exactly that, Frank. That’s exactly what I mean.”_

Frank had said nothing in return, stunned to silence and this left Gerard with a gnawing regret every moment of every day. And that was why he was on his way to Frank’s apartment in New York for a surprise visit. In just a couple of days, it would be a week of having ignored each other, and that would be the longest for them. Gerard did not want to reach that point. He did not want to lose Frank.

Frank was surprised to see Gerard when he opened the door. He shrugged, though, and let him in without asking why he was there. Gerard’s shifty and tired eyes already gave him an idea.

“I’m sorry for what I said.” Gerard was standing next to one of Frank’s many large windows, New York’s skyline laid out before him. Frank was behind him, waiting for him to continue. “You know I can’t be sick of you. I just want you to stop doubting me. You _know_ those pictures aren’t recent. I would never do something like that to you, and you would know anyways.”

Gerard chuckled lifelessly, his back still to Frank. “Our followers don’t leave much to be a secret, you know? And I’m glad, ‘cause if I ever did something like that, I would want you to know. My ass would deserve to be busted.”

“And killed,” Frank added, pressing his lips together to keep the smile from showing up on his face.

Gerard turned around, looking hopeful. “Killed definitely,” he agreed.

Frank would always blame the sunset that painted his entire living room a luminous orange, outlined Gerard’s hunched figure, and left the skyscrapers mere silhouettes against the sky’s backdrop for softening Frank’s heart to Gerard’s apology. The truth would always be that Frank was always soft when it came to Gerard; they both were for each other. They got angry very easily, but forgave the same way.

They kissed by the window, wrapped in each other’s arms, until the sky had completely darkened outside and they were left to stumble around the living room with no lighting, giggling and grabbing at each other. They ended up in the bedroom, clothes gone in a matter of minutes.

There was apprehension in every laugh, moan, and sigh they shared that night. When would they be fighting again? How long would the good mood last before it made way to a new problem? They were curled up against each other, on their sides, Gerard pressed against Frank’s back and rutting his hips into him. Nails scraped against skin, and then fingers clasped tightly, holding on to the only moment they were certain they had. The next time they fought, they would not think about the moans they heard in moments like this, the happy and pleasured exhales they felt showering warmly over them. This moment would not matter when tempers rose again, so they clung to it while they could.

Hours later, they lay in the same position, but with clothes on. Their night had gone pleasantly well. They had dinner together, talked, laughed, and browsed the internet as though the fight had never happened.

“I love this about us,” Gerard spoke softly into Frank’s ear, his arm tightening around Frank’s waist.

“What?” Frank asked, placing his hand over Gerard’s. “That you’re always the big spoon?”

“That, too.” Gerard laughed. “But I meant that even when we have these huge fights, we can feel normal again right after.”

Frank sighed, tracing his fingers over Gerard’s knuckles. “Yeah. I wish we didn’t have to have the big fight in the first place, though. That we could just always be like this.”

“Me, too. But it’s worth it, right? The good times we have?”

Frank’s fingers stilled too suddenly for Gerard not to notice and he hesitated before giving his answer. Gerard grew instinctively worried, holding his breath so that he did not comment on Frank’s reluctance.

“Yeah,” Frank agreed at last. “Yeah, of course.”

Gerard nuzzled his face into the back of Frank’s neck, his eyes shut tight, and swallowed down his desire to question Frank. There was clearly doubt in Frank’s answer. For the sake of preserving this good night, Gerard said nothing.

Morning came and Gerard was still feeling distressed by Frank’s blatant uncertainty about their relationship. This feeling stayed with him throughout the morning, leaving quite a bit of awkwardness between them. They made almost no conversation, aside from the mandatory or mundane things like thanking Gerard for having made coffee or asking Frank if he had misplaced the remote.

Gerard kept hoping that as the day went on, things would gradually shift back to their normal and relaxed state, but they didn’t. Halfway through their eventless day, they each sat on separate armchairs, on their separate laptops, engaging in separate conversations on Tumblr.

Gerard could see an ongoing conversation between Frank and Shaun taking place on his dashboard and he tried to ignore it. It was better not to watch Frank’s interactions with other people when Gerard was in a sour mood.

Gerard’s willpower did not last very long, though, and he read the conversations, immediately striking a strong flame of jealousy. Frank and Shaun were talking the same way that Gerard and Frank used to talk, laughs and jokes in every message. Gerard missed having that with Frank. It was unfair that Shaun was closer to Frank than Gerard, who was sitting just feet away from him.

Gerard knew that Shaun was Frank’s best friend and that that was all they had been for years before Gerard even knew Frank. Common sense and factual knowledge were never enough to stop their tempers once they began to stir. And maybe if they had a fight now and made up later, they would be able to have a short moment of peace like the one they had the night before.

So Gerard sighed loudly to catch Frank’s attention and said, “Next thing you know your followers are gonna think you dumped me for Shaun.”

Frank rolled his eyes and looked back at his own screen. “Everyone knows Shaun is my best friend.”

“Yeah.” Gerard shrugged. “Not how it always looks, you know?” Gerard added as an afterthought, as if he was making an innocent observation rather than accusing Frank.

Frank fixed Gerard with a bored stare. “You’re not going there, not with Shaun.”

“There?” Gerard asked. “So you know where I’m going with this.”

“No shit, Gerard,” Frank said with a scoff. “We’ve been there a million times already.”

Gerard shut his laptop, feeling even more annoyed by Tumblr’s trademark shade of blue staring at him. It had become an all too familiar backdrop for most of their arguments. He sat up, bracing himself for a more heated exchange.

“And yet you still do it directly on my dash, where everybody else can see you.” Gerard kept his voice calm for the time being. “I mean all these suspicions can’t mean nothing.”

“No, actually, they _do_ mean nothing. They’re downright stupid. Come on, I’ve known Shaun for years!”

“Like that’s supposed to make me feel better.” Gerard looked away from Frank, turning his attention to the view outside of the windows. He couldn’t help but notice that the sky was a much prettier blue as opposed to the bleak shade on Tumblr.

“Oh my God.” Frank laughed, shaking his head. “Okay, seriously, if I wanted to cheat on you, you’d think I’d be more discreet.”

“Huh, really, are you considering it?” Gerard narrowed his eyes.

Frank wished Gerard was joking. It all sounded like a joke. “Is everything I say just gonna piss you off? Why are you getting mad at everything?”

“Because you’re pissing me off!” Gerard raised his voice, which escalated the whole situation a lot more.

They stared at each other, eyes questioning and angry and… doubtful. They were doubting everything between them, including whatever reasons they had to have tried to keep things going when their days consisted of this exact infuriating conversation.

No other words were exchanged, so Frank sighed, shut his laptop, and retreated to his room. Gerard flinched, hearing the force of the door slamming as though it was right next to him. Gerard felt nauseous now that he was alone. He knew that starting the accusations was stupid; he always knew. The problem was that he only knew after they finished yelling at each other.

Gerard took a deep breath, wanting to subdue the sick feeling in his stomach and failing. He sat there, doing nothing, because what else? He was terrified of what would happen next. Nothing was certain. After a few minutes of waiting and realizing that Frank would not be back out, he got back onto Tumblr.

Nothing worked to distract him and then to make things worse, he saw Frank post something under a “read more” link with a tag that said, _#ignore this._ Gerard did the opposite, of course, clicking on the option to read more directly on his dashboard. Frank had written, “i’m tired. i’m so fucking tired. i seriously can’t take this shit anymore… i can’t.”

Gerard felt his heart plummet down to his stomach and then rise back up to his throat. Frank seemed so resigned, more so than ever. Gerard had this sudden omniscient feeling that they would not be able to bounce back the way they had many times before. He wished this had dawned on him a lot earlier, when he could have actually salvaged whatever relationship they had left.

Gerard hit refresh to see if the post had any notes, but Frank had already deleted it. Gerard heard Frank’s door open, so he shut his laptop to conceal that he had been on Tumblr.

Frank’s face was blank. He walked over to Gerard and stood right in front of him, arms crossed, defensive, completely shut out.

“You either fucking commit to this trusting shit we always talk about and stop getting mad over dumb stuff or end this right now,” Frank bluntly stated. “I’m tired of these stupid fights.”

“It’s not just me.” Gerard was quick to defend himself. “You do it, too. We both do it.”

“God, stop it,” Frank said with a tired sigh. “Don’t turn this into another fight, please, just make this easy for once.”

Gerard just stared up at him, forehead aching from how tightly furrowed together his eyebrows were. Speaking without choking on his words seemed impossible, so he stayed quiet. He was willing to do absolutely anything, but he had no idea what it was Frank wanted. Anything he said may have been a problem at this point.

Frank realized that Gerard had no idea what to say, so he spoke again. “I’m really done.”

“N-No, no you can’t be.” Gerard finally found his voice in his panic.

“All we do is fight,” Frank said, as though he was trying to explain things to Gerard and reason with him. “I’m so tired of it. I know you are, too.”

“I’ll change,” Gerard offered without a second thought. “I swear. I won’t get mad at stupid shit, okay? Just don’t… don’t end this.”

Frank looked down, unable to meet Gerard’s desperate eyes. “I can’t, Gerard. I don’t think we were cut out for this or something.”

Gerard fell silent again, so Frank looked back at him. He wished he hadn’t. Gerard’s eyes were red, threatening to gloss over with tears. Frank could handle many things, but Gerard crying was not one of them. Just seeing Gerard broken to the point of near tears pinched at something in Frank and he found his eyes stinging.

“Look at you,” Gerard choked out, voice shaking. He stood up and Frank stepped back when he did, keeping a distance between them. “You don’t want to end this, Frank, I know you don’t.”

“I really don’t,” Frank admitted, shaking his head. “But we have to. We can’t keep doing things the way we are.”

Gerard closed the distance between them and held Frank’s face in his hands, keeping their tear-filled eyes locked together, hoping that all the joy they had lost in the many disagreements could be seen there in the despair. Both of them sniffled persistently, trying to keep the tears from falling.

“Please, let’s try and figure this out,” Gerard whispered.

Frank had always found it hard to say no to Gerard and Gerard almost crying over Frank only made it more difficult. Frank never realized how much Gerard cared, and how much he himself cared. He never knew it would hurt as much as it was. He also knew that if things continued the way they were, it would always hurt, because it would always feel like they were on the verge of ending whatever relationship they had.

Frank slipped his face out from between Gerard’s hands and took a step back, shocking even himself. He said, “No, we’re not doing this again. We need space, like a break maybe, I dunno. But we need to figure ourselves out before we get back into this shit again.”

“But I don’t want a break,” Gerard whined. “I want _you._ ”

Frank could not handle anymore of Gerard looking at him and pleading to keep things alive without submitting to his constant desire to forgive and briefly move on. He shook his head and walked away, going back to the safety of his room. The door didn’t close this time and Gerard stared at its empty meaning.

After a while, Gerard fell back into the armchair, pressing his fingers into his eyes, and groaning loudly. He had fucked up. He had fucked up so badly and there was no way to fix anything. Frank had made up his mind and Gerard would never be able to change it. He would no longer refute everything Frank had to say; they had done enough of that.

Gerard stood up at last and went to Frank’s room. Frank lay on his stomach, his face at the foot of the bed, buried into the sheets. He lifted his head up when Gerard walked in. Both of their eyes were red and swimming with more confusion than tears. Frank sat up on his knees and Gerard remained at the door, one hand on the door knob, the other in his pocket.

“No more jealousy,” Gerard said. “No more sneaking around and snooping. No more of wanting to change each other. We had blogging way before we had each other. No more of… all of that and this can work, right?”

“Can we actually do that?” Frank asked. Gerard could hear it in Frank’s voice that he had already decided that the answer was no.

“I really think so,” Gerard answered. Frank envied his optimism. “You want this to work, right? And so do I, so much.”

“Of course I do, but…” Frank’s voice trailed off. His hands were on his legs, and his eyes on his fingers as they scraped at the fabric of his jeans, a small tear beginning on one of his knees. They were both tired of this conversation. It was one they had unfortunately grown accustomed to having. Things had to change and having a façade of making up was not the right way to make that happen.

“A break,” Gerard said. Frank’s eyes finally met his. Gerard tightened his grip on the doorknob, steadying himself. “You said you wanted a break, so I’ll give that to you, to us, okay?”

“That sounds like a good idea, yeah,” Frank agreed, his voice still small, still unsure.

“But it’s a break. We’re not over, right?”

Frank smiled at him; it was such a sad smile, small and without any genuineness. Gerard hated it; he missed that truly happy grin Frank had that had won him over from the beginning. He wanted it back.

“No,” Frank answered. Gerard’s spirits lifted. There was hope. “Not yet,” Frank added and Gerard’s hope was crushed. They were two small words and still they kept the possibility of them ending out in the open.

Gerard hated it even more than that fake smile, but he faked one of his own instead of commenting, nodded, and slowly made his way out of Frank’s apartment.

**

Gerard felt exactly the same as when he had lost his job at the daycare. His life felt void and the source of the pain was Tumblr. When he had gotten back from Frank’s place, he made a post telling everyone that he would take a break, leaving them without any explanation. It had happened before so his followers were more curious than surprised. Upon Gerard’s unexpected announcement, Frank received an onslaught of questions about what was going on.

For a day, Frank ignored the growing number of messages in his inbox, blogging as though nothing had happened. He knew he had to give them an explanation, though. He didn’t have the heart to leave them the way Gerard had. Although Gerard had left Tumblr, he regularly checked Frank’s blog. He saw the way Frank began answering questions very vaguely and briefly. When people would ask, “What happened to Gerard?” he would reply with something as simple as, “I haven’t talked to him in a while so I dunno.” That went on for days until he got inquiries about whether or not they had broken up. He never got into detail, only giving away that they were taking a break because they both had jealousy issues. Gerard hoped for more, just as the followers did, but Frank gave nothing else.

Eventually, Frank got tired of answering every question, so he made an FAQ and anytime he so much as saw Gerard’s name in a question, he didn’t even bother reading. He would link to the FAQ and say nothing else; that page consisted of one question that asked, “What happened with Gerard?” His answer was, “We both got jealous a lot. We fought a lot. And now we have to do a lot of thinking, alone.”

Gerard tried to distract himself with Photoshop, but his creativity seemed limited to editing photos of Frank and himself when they were together. It pained him every time yet he could not get himself to stop. He convinced himself that the process would be cathartic – editing a photo, staring at it upon completion to reminisce about the day it was taken, and then deleting it right after – even though he knew it was not helping him in the slightest.

Occasionally, he changed it up by watching a movie in bed. No matter what he did, though, he always ended up glued to his laptop screen to stare longingly at Frank’s FAQ page, although mostly he would be staring at Frank’s sidebar pictures; there were two of them. The first was half of Frank’s grinning face at the edge of the frame and his chest and arm in the rest of it, showing off his tattoos that were lit up as a result of a too-bright camera flash. The picture below it was a zoomed in photo of Frank in a blissed out expression, his mouth open in that flawless “o” shape. There was no way for Gerard to stop from hurting, so he went straight to the source. Everything he did hurt anyway. Walking around his house filled him with sadness because Frank’s belongings still littered the place. Some of his clothes took up most of Gerard’s closet, his toothbrush still stood next to Gerard’s, his hair products that he’d bought double of so that he always had some at Gerard’s place, and his stupid tweezers still rested on the back of the toilet from the last time they were used.

A lot of Gerard’s friends had reached out to him, checking on him constantly. He couldn’t get himself to respond, and he felt like a jerk for ignoring them, but he couldn’t handle talking about it. The only person he kept in touch with was his friend Adam. Gerard had briefly informed Adam about what happened with Frank, which made Adam’s motherly concern even more relentless.

After about two weeks of Gerard sulking around in his self-pity, turning into an anti-social hermit that only saw the outside world when he went to work, Adam decided to visit and break the pattern.

Gerard was surprised to hear a knock on his door, and even more so when he was faced with Adam’s smiling face.

“Happy birthday!” he had greeted before launching himself at Gerard for a suffocating hug.

Gerard had completely forgotten it was his birthday already. Before he and Frank stopped talking, they had discussed taking a road trip for Gerard’s birthday that year. That was all he could think about as Adam shoved and cheered at him, trying to get even the smallest of smiles out of Gerard.

They sat in Gerard’s living room. Adam decided that trying to force Gerard to look happier wouldn’t be working, so he asked Gerard to talk to him about what was happening. Gerard was hesitant at first, but his feelings started spilling forward the moment he allowed himself to speak about Frank out loud.

“I know that Frank copes with his blog, you know, I respect that, but…” Gerard paused, picking at his faded pajama pants. “I can tell he’s getting over it, and I know he’s gonna end it officially, you know? I just wish he could do it already.”

“So he hasn’t said a word to you?” Adam asked.

Gerard shook his head, frowning sadly and avoiding Adam’s concerned gaze. “When I left, we didn’t say we were over, so I’m just waiting on his word. It was supposed to be just a break, but I don’t think it’s that anymore. Shit, I bet he’s already started hooking up with people again.”

The thought had bounced around in Gerard’s head for a while, and it left him feeling hollowed out when he heard himself clearly admit it.

“You think so?” Adam urged. He was sad to see Gerard so upset, but he was glad he was finally releasing all of those cooped up feelings.

“I wouldn’t blame him.” Gerard shrugged. “I mean, if he knows he’s gonna end it eventually, he might as well.”

“I haven’t heard anything, but I’m really sorry if he is.” Adam had no other words of comfort, so he placed a gentle hand on Gerard’s shoulder.

Gerard still kept his eyes lowered. “I wish I could do that, too. I wish I could move on like that. I really want to…” Gerard paused and finally turned to look at Adam, who was still gazing at Gerard worriedly. An idea came to Gerard suddenly, and he turned to properly face Adam. “Adam… would you, uh…”

Adam gave Gerard’s shoulder a gentle squeeze, encouraging him to go on.

“Maybe I just need someone other than Frank right now, you know?”

Adam knew what Gerard was asking of him. Maybe if Gerard moved on with one person, did things he always did from before he hooked up with Frank, it would help him go back to normal. Adam cared for Gerard, so he would agree to anything that could potentially help him.

“If you think that would make you feel better,” Adam said with a nod.

Gerard nodded, swallowing nervously. He just needed to feel something. Gerard leaned closer to Adam, hesitating a bit when he could feel his uneasy breaths hitting Adam’s face. He shut his eyes, though, and just went for it. Their lips met, already slightly parted, ready to jump right into it without taking things slow. Adam had always been a good kisser, Gerard knew that better than most, and though his lips and tongue worked against Gerard’s with precision and expertise, and though it was so familiar, Gerard felt sick to his stomach.

Gerard tried to shove these feelings aside, pushing himself even closer to Adam, humming into the kiss to fool his mind into thinking that he was enjoying it. When Adam’s hand slid up Gerard’s neck and into his hair, Gerard lost it. He couldn’t do it. He felt so nauseous at everything that was happening, the fact that he still wanted Frank, that he wanted Frank so badly he couldn’t even have a simple hook up with someone he had fucked so many times before.

“I’m sorry,” Gerard gasped, pushing Adam away. He looked down at his lap, embarrassed. “I thought… I thought I… but I can’t.”

“Hey, G, it’s okay,” Adam comforted him, still smiling. “How about we go out for coffee? Maybe that’ll be a better distraction?”

Gerard looked up at Adam, amazed and so grateful for having him there. “Thank you so much for being so—” Gerard waved his hand aimlessly, summing up his point there.

Adam took Gerard to a nearby Starbucks, sitting them in the back so that they could converse comfortably. They stayed on topics that had nothing to do with Frank. Gerard didn’t have much to talk about other than work, but Adam listened intently. Adam complained about a hook up he had a week ago with a man who resisted wearing condoms, which forced Adam to end things halfway.

“He was really good so far, too, but no dick is worth making me sick,” he concluded his story.

Gerard laughed lightly and then hummed agreeably.

“Dude, I spent a week coming up with that slogan,” Adam added, poking at Gerard’s nearly empty cup. “Totally worth more than a pity laugh.”

“I was just too blown away by its genius to properly laugh,” Gerard joked, looking down at his cup and smiling.

Adam quickly opened his camera on his phone and snuck a photo of Gerard while his gaze was down. As Gerard distracted himself with invisible patterns on the edge of the table, Adam uploaded the photo to Tumblr with the caption, “He’s alive!” He knew a lot of people must have been curious about Gerard since his sudden absence and most of them genuinely wanted to know whether or not he was doing okay.

A few minutes later, they headed back to Gerard’s apartment. Adam offered to stay the night, but Gerard thanked him for the gesture and asked him to leave. He was already more than grateful for Adam’s companionship and understanding that day.

As soon as Adam left, Gerard released a loud sigh and went straight to his laptop to check what was new on Frank’s blog. He sat on his sofa, slouched against the armrest, scrolling through some of the random photos and text posts that Frank had reblogged that day.

Gerard stopped when he saw an ask with his name in it. An anonymous person had asked, “How did you feel seeing Gerard’s pic?” Frank answered with a simple, “I’m glad to see he’s ok.” Gerard was confused as to what photo the ask was referring to, so he scrolled further, hoping to find some explanation.

He saw a photo of himself that someone had submitted to Frank. It was from that day, Gerard looking down at his coffee with a half-smile on his face. He hadn’t noticed Adam even take this picture, much less post it on Tumblr. The person who had submitted it also wrote, “Did you see this??” Frank posted it and added, “of course. I’ve been tagged in like a million posts about it and submitted like another million.”

Gerard had no idea how to gauge Frank’s reaction. In one post, he seemed very annoyed by Gerard’s photo being persistently thrown in his face, and in the next he said he was glad Gerard was doing okay. Gerard rolled onto his side, burying his face into his couch cushion and groaning loudly. He was so confused.

**

Frank sat on his bed, laptop atop his thighs, the screen being the only source of light in the room. He picked at the paint that had dried around his knuckles, glancing up at his screen. He could see who was on his blog. There was a small clickable number that told him how many people were on there, and when he clicked on it, it gave him details of where each person was from. Many people were on and off of his page throughout the day, so he was hardly able to keep track. There was always one person who never left, however, and he knew it was Gerard. He didn’t know if Gerard forgot about the tracker that gave Frank the IP addresses of people on his blog or if he just didn’t care, but Frank saw him there every single day since they had stopped talking. It drove him crazy to know that Gerard cared that much.

On another tab, he had Gerard’s most recent picture open. He was so glad to see it, even though he didn’t show his excitement to his followers. Frank had gotten worried since Gerard decided to disappear from Tumblr again, especially now that he knew the reason for Gerard’s last absence. The picture was slightly reassuring, though not by much, because Frank could see through that small smile that Gerard had on. Gerard did not look as okay as people may have thought. Frank knew him enough to see that true and clear. He said nothing about it, though. He never did. People were convinced that Frank was doing okay, unaware that his days consisted of nothing other than blogging and painting and the occasional stroll around the neighborhood. They were convinced by Frank’s constant presence on his blog and he hoped Gerard was convinced as well.

A week and a half later, on a Thursday morning, Frank thought about the three or four days he had spent away from his laptop. He had purposely hid it in the back of his closet so he wouldn’t see it at any point and feel the urge to log in. The same way he had needed a break from Gerard, he had needed a break from all the speculation and the repetitive confused questions about their relationship. Today, he had tried painting, but stared at the blank canvas for much longer than he usually did, so he cursed himself and went to retrieve his laptop from his closet.

He left it on the kitchen counter as he made a cup of coffee for dinner, then took both items with him so he could settle on the couch and get out of his own head. It was just too much. First and foremost, he wanted to know if Gerard's IP still loomed around his tracker notifications, but right now he had no idea who was who. Then, he logged in to Tumblr and something caught his attention. He had 100+ new messages in his inbox and was taken aback by such a high number. Surely he hadn't been active for a while, but this was still surprising.

With a sigh, he clicked on the envelope icon and braced himself.

Although some of his followers enquired about his absence, most messages revolved around his relationship with Gerard. Some were just plain asks that rambled on about how much they deserved each other, and how their relationship deserved far more effort than what they had put in, and others insisted to ask if he knew how Gerard was since he hadn’t been blogging at all. People also submitted several edits, displaying the talent of some of their followers. Every picture was beautifully done and many of them had the same words, though in varying fonts, added onto them: “Trust is a path that’s slowly built, and you have to be together to start on it.” Scrolling through message after message, Frank felt a painful jab to his gut in seeing so much passion from people he had never met about his relationship with Gerard. They greatly valued it and he felt disappointed in himself that he did not display this same passion. Also being forced to look through pictures of Gerard and him together didn’t make the blow any easier to bear through.

Looking through his tag consisted of the same thing, but with even more pictures. Logically, he should have stopped, knowing that the only thing he would gain from this is a tremendous amount of pain and nostalgia. He couldn’t, though. There were pictures of him smiling alongside Gerard, of them kissing, of them cuddled up in bed together, of them smiling suggestively at the camera with messy hair that gave everything away. He missed it all. There was that yearning that he had pushed aside so many times before.

Between all the pictures, and the text posts urging them to reconsider, Frank saw one long post that seemed to have been circulating the most, and that he assumed was the start of everything he was seeing. The post read: “Ok I may seem like a HUGE fangirl that cares way too much about her OTP for this, but I honestly think frank and gerard need to get back together. Come on, we all saw them, they were the cutest thing together and they looked so happy. I know frank said too many jealousy issues got in the way, but that’s ALL he mentioned and that’s totally not worth ending their relationship. So I think we need to get their attention, I dunno, show them that they should try harder? cause to be honest I think it’s obvious that they both miss each other, I mean GERARD’S NOT EVEN ON ANYMORE. SO let’s make a whole bunch of posts to show them that they need to work on their trust cause trust is a path that’s slowly built, and you have to be together to start on it.”

There was that last line that Frank had seen edited into a few pictures, and it was really driving the point home for Frank. What that girl said, it made sense. Frank and Gerard had let one thing get in the way of making their relationship work, and since it was one thing, they could have easily repaired it. This break, whatever it was supposed to do, would not help the matter. They had to be together in this.

Before making any spontaneous decisions, he left his laptop in the living room, and paced his house a few times, breathing through the influx of thoughts and emotions. It was a bit too much, but it was very necessary. He missed Gerard. No matter how hard he tried to deny it, he had missed him the moment he walked out of Frank’s bedroom. Frank made a decision then. He had to go see Gerard.

He rushed over to his laptop, doing things quickly so that he wouldn’t second guess himself. He made a vague post since Gerard was still undoubtedly watching his blog. He wrote, “You guys are too sweet, every single one of you. I really appreciate it and yeah I think I need to do something.”

**

When Gerard saw the post that Frank put up, he waited for more that would hopefully explain what it meant. There was nothing. There was a temptation to go on the rest of Tumblr in search of an explanation. Gerard shrugged it off, though. Things would unravel themselves eventually without him having to trouble himself by going through any other part of Tumblr.

He had noticed the lack of activity in the last few days, and this text post was too sudden and too vague. Not knowing what it meant drove Gerard crazy to the point of refreshing Frank’s blog in search for any more clues about what was going on.

Frank did not post for the rest of the day, which troubled Gerard, and he may have given into the temptation if it wasn’t for the fact that he had to head out to work around midday. He was closing that night, filling in for another worker, and he was very glad for it because he needed to get his mind off of Frank and his mysterious post.

Not long before three o’clock, he was backing out of his apartment and locking the door, rattling the door knob a few times to make sure it was locked, and then turning to head down the hall, down the elevator, and through the lobby like he always did. Then, he opened the door to leave the building. He had not been expecting an interruption in this daily routine, and he had most definitely not been expecting an interruption in the form of Frank.

Gerard’s throat closed up. For a moment, he truly believed he was hallucinating. Frank was walking towards him, hands tucked into the pockets of his hoodie, looking quite sheepish, which was a new look for him. His hoodie was unzipped and he wore a plaid shirt under. Gerard groaned internally; of course he was wearing plaid. His hood was up over a cap he had on, small tendrils of his hair peeking out from underneath and curling along his jaw and neck. Speaking of his jaw, there was a slight amount of stubble there, and a moustache, too. Gerard was so used to Frank being clean shaven that his fingers itched to run along the scratchy surface. He wouldn’t, though. He had one hand braced to his door knob, and the other clutched onto his keys.

Gerard just stared, eyes not lingering on any single part of Frank for too long because it brought back that unpleasant turning his stomach did whenever he thought of Frank and how much he missed everything about him. Frank stood right in front of him now, but he still missed him.

“Uh…” Frank spoke, voice coming out scratchy so he cleared his throat awkwardly, avoiding direct eye contact with Gerard. “Were you coming back or, um, going out?”

“Work,” Gerard answered simply, voice small. “Late shift, uh, I’m closing.”

“Oh.” Frank wanted to slam his head against a wall for being so spontaneous. Gerard had work, he had a _life_. “Hm… well… Well okay then, I mean, go I don’t wanna make you late or anything.”

Gerard swallowed thickly, feeling like he was in another world at that moment. He took a deep breath before speaking again.

“Do you wanna, maybe, wait here? Till I get back?” Gerard offered. He still had no idea why Frank was there, but leaving him that way felt strange.

“Would that be weird?” Frank asked with an overly expressive frown. “It sounds weird.”

“No.” Gerard shook his head. “It should be normal, hell, all your stuff is still here. It wasn’t weird before, right?”

“Yeah,” Frank said with a sigh. “Before.”

Gerard’s face fell then, his attempt at a neutral face turning into a deep grimace. He wasn’t sure what he was trying to achieve by offering his apartment to Frank like old times, maybe he was trying to reestablish some sense of normality. It was stupid, and he was about to take back the offer, when Frank interrupted his thoughts.

“Yeah, yeah,” he said quickly. Frank was not there to put that saddened expression on Gerard’s face anymore. “I’ll wait here, if that’s okay?”

Frank wanted to see him smile. The weak smile Gerard offered him then, with a short nod, wasn’t what he had in mind, but it was a start.

Gerard gave Frank his keys, and they bid each other an awkward goodbye. The closest they got to each other was their fingers touching lightly as Frank took the keys, and Gerard’s shoulder almost brushing against Frank’s when he walked past him.

Gerard’s mind was swarming with thoughts, leaving his mind only somewhat focused during his drive to work and through his seemingly longer shift. He was mentally reflecting on the entire encounter, going back through every shrug of Frank’s shoulders, shifting of his feet, awkward head bow before he spoke. None of it seemed good or hopeful. Gerard had had this ridiculous hope that the next time they met would be to reconcile, and that the mood between them would be a lot lighter. Instead, it felt like something bad was waiting for Gerard when he got home. The thought of Frank waiting for him in his apartment used to lift his spirits, and now it terrified him.

Gerard convinced himself that Frank was there to officially end things, giving him the courtesy of doing it in person. There was no way he was there to fix their relationship; he had been fine without Gerard. To keep himself from grieving over it, Gerard formulated a speech in his head that would make Frank consider at least allowing them to continue being friends. If he couldn’t have Frank in his life as his boyfriend anymore, he still wanted him in it somehow.

For a while, Frank just walked through Gerard’s apartment, reminiscing on all the memories they had made before everything took a turn for the worst. He was surprised that Gerard still kept all of Frank’s things where they were, not tossing them out in a fit of anger or sadness. He then used Gerard’s laptop to pass the time while he waited. He hadn’t brought his own since the trip had been so sudden and he was not going to use it to spy on Gerard; he was done with that phase.

Frank settled on the sofa, the laptop humming to life in his lap. The first thing that showed up was a picture of Frank and Gerard together. The laptop was on standby from its last use. It was a picture that Frank had taken of himself leaning his head on Gerard’s shoulder. Gerard was still sleeping, mouth slightly ajar, and Frank had a dreamy expression on his face, peering up at him. It seemed that Gerard had edited it, bringing down the brightness and saturation of it, which gave it a very nostalgic tone. Frank swallowed down the sadness that bubbled up in his throat.

He exited that photo and found a file with a few more edited pictures. All of them had that same dark tone, regardless of them smiling in a few of them. Other than the pictures that had been submitted to Frank that day, Frank had avoided looking at old photos of himself with Gerard because no matter how confused he was about where things stood, he undoubtedly missed Gerard when he saw them together. Today, though, all these pictures were being forced at him and it was solidifying the fact that he wanted Gerard back. In coming to visit Gerard, he had hoped to amend all the negativity that had developed between them. He wasn’t entirely sure what that meant for their relationship, if it meant anything at all, but now he knew it needed to mean something.

Frank wanted Gerard back, not just as a friend or acquaintance. He missed their efforts to try to embarrass each other, spending days and nights cuddling and doing nothing else, always waking up before Gerard and then laughing at how Gerard’s mouth hung open when he was deeply asleep, being out with him and always being pressed against Gerard’s side with Gerard’s arm wrapped snugly around his shoulders. That was not part of a friendship, that was so much more, and he wanted it back. They let all of it go because of _one_ issue that could have been worked on better over time. He felt so stupid for letting the trivial problem of jealousy take all of that away.

Frank wanted to tell Gerard all of that. He wanted to articulate it so perfectly that Gerard would truly understand how much Frank had missed him. When Gerard got home, though, Frank letting him in since he didn’t take spare keys with him, they just stood across from each other in the most awkward silence one could imagine.

Frank had gotten rid of his hat and slid the hoodie off of his head, leaving his ruffed up hair on full display. Gerard’s fingers should not have been itching to card through that unnaturally soft hair and leave his hands smelling like hair products for the rest of the night. He shoved his hands into his pockets to dull the temptation.

Frank was toying with the zipper of his hoodie, looking down at his feet. He had to say something. He had been the one to surprise Gerard with a visit, so he had to blurt out what he needed to say. Frank looked up, eyes caught with Gerard’s. They both looked so helpless.

“I miss you,” Frank blurted, breathing out in relief. He swallowed and shut his eyes. “A lot. So, so fucking much.”

Gerard felt this pleasant surge of warmth in his chest, rising to his neck, and up to his face. The nerves dissipated, replaced by a sense of joy that he had not felt in a long time. Frank had good things to say so far. It did not sound like the beginning of a break up speech. Gerard opened his mouth, hoping to enunciate the happiness he was feeling, but only choked sounds that Frank couldn’t even hear came out of his throat.

Frank opened his eyes and watched Gerard’s mouth open slightly. He waited for a response, for something that could give him a hint as to how things would go. Gerard didn’t say anything, though, and Frank could not read him. The nervousness Frank had felt doubled immediately. He crossed his arms, only to uncross them a second later, fidgeting in place.

“Say something?” Frank pleaded, biting his lip.

“Fuck, I thought you were going to break up with me for real,” Gerard finally said, words coming out in a rushed breath.

“I can see why you’d think that,” Frank said with a sigh. “Things have been… weird lately.”

“Things have been nothing lately,” Gerard added, shrugging. “There’s been nothing. I thought you had decided it was done.”

Frank shook his head, taking a small step towards Gerard. He stopped himself from getting too close, still unsure where things stood.

“God, no, I can’t do that,” Frank said.

“Really?” Gerard sounded so hopeful and excited, making Frank’s stomach flutter with the opposite of anxiousness.

“Yeah.” Frank looked down again. “You want to, right? I mean, you still wanna stay together and make things work?”

Gerard wanted to burst out and had to contain himself from yelling when he said, “I’ve just been hoping you would want to.”

“I just…” Frank paused, sighing again. He risked taking a couple of steps, shrinking the unbearably awkward distance between himself and Gerard. “I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to realize it.”

Frank was closer to Gerard, enough to see the barely visible stubble on his chin; he always sucked at growing out his facial hair. Frank wanted to hug him; he so desperately wanted Gerard’s arms to encompass his small frame like they always did, surround him entirely. Gerard had his lips pursed slightly to the side and Frank wanted to kiss them. He missed his kisses so much, and as he thought about it, he had no idea how he managed to stay sane without Gerard in close proximity for the past few weeks.

Both of them craved the same thing, but neither wanted to cross any unspoken boundaries. Things were still murky between the two of them.

“I… it’s okay,” was all Gerard said and they fell back into a tense silence.

“Oh, God,” Frank groaned, frustrated and finally losing his patience. He ran a hand through his hair and looked directly into Gerard’s eyes. “Tell me what you want, Gerard. I need to know what you’re feeling at this point.”

“I…well… I want…” Gerard was stuttering stupidly, unable to transcribe his thoughts into words that Frank could understand. He felt ridiculous. Frank stripped him of his usual confidence; he couldn’t be his cocky self, not when it came to dealing with Frank, not when things were as serious as they were. Frank took another step closer, turning Gerard’s stutters into silence.

They were close now, close enough to see every new detail that had developed during their time apart. They could feel each other’s warmth, craving to feel it even closer.

“Tell me, Gerard,” Frank said, voice low. “Honestly, tell me anything. Ask me to stay and I will, or tell me to leave and I will. Whatever you want.”

Gerard finally snapped out of his stupid nervous state. He would not let this slip out of his hands. Frank was inches away from him and offering to stay and Gerard had to take that.

“Not leave,” he finally spoke ineloquently. “You can’t leave… I want you to stay with me. I want us to happen again.”

Frank’s face split into that wide grin that Gerard adored with his entire being. Frank was beyond relieved, having desperately needed to hear that Gerard still wanted him. Gerard’s lips had barely twitched into the beginning of a smile before Frank was all over him. Gerard stumbled back a bit, not ready for the impact, but then he steadied them. He wrapped his arms around Frank, one hand pushing him closer by the small of his back. Frank had his hands on Gerard’s shirt collar, tugging him down into a much needed a kiss. It was as though their bodies internally sighed together, loosening up and relaxing against each other. It felt just like the first time they had kissed after becoming boyfriends. The insistent warmth at the pits of their stomachs, the small smiles that they couldn’t contain even with their lips pressed together, and the pure anticipation at what awaited them now that their relationship had solidified.

They held their position for a while, reacquainting themselves with every slide of their lips and happy whine that came from a small tug or nip. Gerard’s hand, still warm and heavy on Frank’s lower back, slid down to his ass, giving him a squeeze. Frank sucked in a breath and pulled back, smiling with reddened lips; it made Gerard want to pull him back immediately.

“I really missed your stupid tattoo,” Gerard said, gripping Frank’s ass harder.

“Really?” Frank raised an eyebrow. “Is that all you missed?”

Gerard smirked, their time apart becoming nonexistent. “Hm, maybe a few other things, too.”

Frank erupted in fit of happy giggles and Gerard cut him off with quick pecks on his lips and down to his neck, both of them smiling and chuckling happily the entire time. They couldn’t contain the happiness they felt at that moment.

**

They lay in bed, clad only in boxers and fluffed up sex hair. They hadn’t gotten past the living room, becoming familiar with each other’s bodies once again on Gerard’s sofa. They managed to sluggishly drag themselves into the room after they were finished. Frank lay on top of Gerard now, softly kissing his chest and running his fingers up his neck. He had missed marking up his pale skin so much.

“Lemme guess,” Gerard said, pausing for a moment as Frank sucked on his chest, eyes still locked with Gerard’s. When Frank stopped, Gerard managed to continue, “You’re thinking about taking pictures right now, aren’t you?”

Frank chuckled against Gerard’s skin. “How’d you know?”

Gerard smiled and ran his hand through Frank’s hair. “Not much has changed.”

Frank shook his head, moving up to face Gerard properly. “A lot has changed. It has to.”

Gerard nodded in agreement. Frank was right. Everything had changed and unlike every fight and resolution they had experienced before, this time was different. They had lived a small amount of time without each other, and they would both do whatever it took not to revisit that time in their lives, and that included overlooking all the past problems of jealousy.

“Oh my God, I just remembered!” Frank exclaimed, sitting up and off of Gerard. He went to the living room and returned with Gerard’s laptop in hand. “I have to show you what our followers did. You didn’t see it, did you?”

“No, what’d they do?”

Frank settled comfortably next to Gerard, going onto Tumblr and taking Gerard through all the messages and photos he had in his inbox, as well as the posts and pictures.

Gerard was in awe, smiling softly at the amount of dedication he and Frank had received from their followers. Frank would turn to him and place a kiss on his shoulder or neck every once in a while, and then resume scrolling. It was amazing to see how many people wanted them together, how they had seen the fault in their decision far better than Gerard and Frank could have ever seen it themselves.

“So that’s what your post was about,” Gerard mused, feeling a little choked up, still going through photos that even Frank hadn’t seen yet.

Frank smiled, nuzzling his head against Gerard’s shoulder. “I knew you had been on my blog, so I had to keep it a surprise.”

“Yeah, I realized you could see me after a couple of days,” Gerard said with a smile. “But I didn’t care at that point. And maybe I wanted you to see.”

“Sorry it didn’t like… force me to react faster.”

“Shut up, you don’t need to apologize,” Gerard quickly said, tilting Frank’s chin up so he could kiss him briefly. He had missed that feeling so much. “I think the time off was good in the end, no matter how much it hurt.”

“We’re better,” Frank agreed. “I think we can get over our shit this time.”

Gerard concurred with another quick kiss.

“Oh man, they don’t know we’re together yet,” Frank said when he felt Gerard trying to slide the laptop away. “They’re gonna be so excited.”

Frank suddenly launched out of Gerard’s bed, leaving Gerard’s side cold without his warmth. Gerard watched him rummage through one of the nightstands until he found a marker and then climbed back onto the bed. He sat astride Gerard’s hips and started writing, the wetness of the pen making Gerard shiver.

Gerard smirked and slid his hands up Frank’s thighs.

“Stop,” Frank said, laughing and pushing his hands away. “And hold still.”

“New rule in this relationship is you can’t sit on me like this and then tell me to hold still,” Gerard said, still moving too much for Frank to write.

“I’m so gonna break up with you if you don’t hold _still_ ,” Frank whined, pouting slightly.

Gerard gasped dramatically, clutching Frank’s hand. “Too soon for jokes, Frankenstein.”

Frank snorted, shaking his head and laughing. Gerard smiled up at him, so content to see Frank happy again, to be joking around together.

“Can you hold still now?” Frank asked nicely.

Gerard finally stopped moving and allowed Frank to continue whatever it was he was writing on Gerard’s chest. Frank pulled back, looking down with a proud smile. Gerard looked as well, reading the words slowly since they were upside down.

“You’re so damn cheesy,” Gerard joked.

“And you love it.” Frank shrugged and moved off of Gerard. “Now write it on me.”

Gerard wrote the same words onto Frank’s chest. They both sat on their knees as he did so, Gerard bracing himself on one of Frank’s thighs. Gerard glanced down at his own chest every once in a while to double check that he was writing the correct words. Frank watched Gerard carefully, the hair hanging over the side of his face as he tilted his head in concentration. Gerard glanced up at him and caught him staring, but it didn’t seem awkward or tense as it had before. He just smiled shyly and then looked back to the words on Frank’s chest while Frank resumed his staring. When Gerard sat back and replaced the cap on the marker, Frank placed both hands on his face and pulled him in for a kiss, lingering slightly this time.

“You didn’t add anything stupid, did you?” Frank accused when he pulled back. He looked down at his chest.

“No, asshole, it’s too perfect for me to mess it up.”

Frank smiled at him and then turned around so that his back was resting against Gerard’s chest. He placed Gerard’s laptop in front of them both, opening the camera. Gerard wrapped both arms around Frank’s middle, hands soft and caressing against Frank’s skin. He kissed along the side of Frank’s neck, unable to contain himself. Frank sighed happily, but shrugged him off.

“Ok, it’ll countdown from three and then take a picture,” Frank said, making sure they were both in the frame. He made the image mirrored so that the writing on their chests was readable. “I’m gonna post it on my blog and you reblog it, yeah?”

Gerard hummed, his lips resting innocently against Frank’s shoulder. Frank leaned forward to click on the ‘capture’ icon and then sat back, getting into position.

They posted the picture, unedited. The caption read: “Thank you all so much.”

The picture captured Frank turning slightly so that he could kiss Gerard, one arm up and around Gerard’s neck. His other hand was placed over Gerard’s two hands, overlapped over his stomach. On Frank’s chest were the words: “Trust is a path that’s slowly built and you have to be together to start on it.” Parts of the same words were visible on what could be seen of Gerard’s chest. Their entire following, friends and fans alike, went ballistic over the photo. There was hardly anyone, even among their closest friends, who did not want to see them together.

This one special photo circulated around Tumblr for days. With all the notes it continued accumulating overtime, the picture of Frank’s embarrassing tattoo was definitely far from ever being the post with the most notes on his blog.


End file.
